Oh,  Book  !  what  is  it  in  tliis  world  of  yours 

That  makes  it  fatal  to  be  wed  to  you?    Oh  !  why 

With  cypres-s  branches  have  you  wreathed  your  bowers 
And  made  your  best  interpreter  a  sigh? 


CRUSADERS  IN  SIGHT  OF  JKRUSAI.EM. — Page  155. 


PROCTOR'S 

HISTORY  OF  THE  CRUSADES 


COMPRISING    THE 


RISE,   PROGRESS   AND  RESULTS 


VARIOUS  EXTRAORDINARY    EUROPEAN  EXPEDITIONS   FOR 

THE  RECOVERY  OF  THE  HOLY  LAND  FROM 

THE  SARACENS  AND  TURKS. 


BY 


MAJOR  GEORGE  PROCTOR. 

OP   THE   ROYAL   MILITARY   ACADEMY,   SANDHURST,    ENGLAND. 


WITH    1BO    ILLUSTRATIONS, 


PHILADELPHIA : 

JOHN  E.  POTTER  &  COMPANY, 
617  SAKSOM  STREET. 


COPYRIGHT 

JOHN  E.  POTTER  &  COMPANY 


AT  the  present  time,  when  a  misunderstanding  concerning 
the  Holy  Places  at  Jerusalem  has  given  rise  to  a  war  involving 
four  of  the  great  Powers  of  Europe,  the  mind  naturally  reverts 
to  the  period  when  nearly  all  the  military  power  of  Europe  made 
a  descent  on  Palestine  for  the  recovery  of  them  from  the 
possession  of  the  infidels.  It  would  seem  that  the  interest  in 
these  places  is  still  alive;  and  the  history  of  the  Holy  Wars 
of  Palestine  during  a  considerable  portion  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
may  be  supposed  to  form  an  attractive  theme  for  the  general 
reader. 

Under  this  impression  Major  Proctor's  excellent  "History 

3 

2064822 


4  .PREFACE. 

of  the  Crusades"  has  been  carefully  revised,  some  additions 
made,  a  series  of  illustrative  engravings,  executed  by  first-rate 
artists,  introduced,  and  the  edition  is  now  respectfully  sub- 
mitted to  the  public. 

The  editor,  in  the  performance  of  his  duty,  has  been  struck 
with  the  masterly,  clear,  and  lucid  method  in  which  the  author 
has  executed  the  work — a  work  of  considerable  difficulty,  when 
we  consider  the  long  period  and  the  multiplicity  of  important 
events  embraced  in  the  history;  nor  has  the  editor  been  less 
impressed  w'th  the  vigorous  style,  and  the  happy  power  of  giv- 
ing vividness,  colour  and  thrilling  interest  to  the  events  which 
he  narrates,  so  conspicuous  in  Major  Proctor's  history.  No 
other  historian  of  the  Crusades  has  succeeded  in  comprising  so 
complete  and  entertaining  a  narrative  in  so  reasonable  a 

compass. 

AMERICAN  EDITOB 


CHAPTER  I. 

f ty  first  teak 

SECTION  I. 
Causes  of  the  Crusades Page    17 

SECTION  II. 
Preaching  of  the  First  Crusade 41 

SECTION  III. 
Peter  the  Hermit. — The  Crusade  undertaken  by  the  People. 55 

SECTION  IV. 
The  Crusade  undertaken  by  Rings  and  Nobles 65 


0  CONTENTS. 

• 

SECTION  V. 
The  First  Crusaders  at  Constantinople  ................................  Page    79 

SECTION  VI. 
The  Siege  of  Nice  .................................................................    90 

SECTION  VII. 
Defeat  of  the  Turks.  —  Seizure  of  Edessa  ....................................  105 

SECTION  VIII. 
Seige  and  Capture  of  Antioch  by  the  Crusaders  ..........................  119 


SECTION  IX. 
Pefence  of  Antioch  by  the  Crusaders  ........................................  130 

SECTION  X. 
Seige  and  Capture  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Crusaders  .......................  153 


CHAPTER  II. 

fasate. 


SECTION  I. 
State  of  the  Latin  Kingdom  .............................  .  ......................  176 

SECTION  II 
Origin  of  the  Orders  of  Religious  Chivalry  ...............  ..  ...............    194 

SECTION  III. 
Pall  of  Edessa.  —  Preaching  of  the  Second  Crusade  ......................  205 

SECTION  IV. 
Louis  VII.  and  Conrad  III.  in  Palestine  ....................................  214 


CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER  III. 

twtitt. 


SECTION  I. 
The  Rise  cf  Saladin  ..............  .  .........................................  Page  22* 

SECTION  II. 
Battle  of  Tiberias,  and  Fall  of  Jerusalem  ....................  .  ........  ,,,„  238 

SECTION  III. 
The  Germans  undertake  the  Crusade  ........................................  248 

SECTION  IV. 
Richard  Cosur  de  Lion  in  Palestine  ...............................   .;.  ......  257 


CHAPTER  IV. 

f  fa  Jtarrtjf 

SECTION  I. 
The  French,  Germans,  and  Italians  unite  in  the  Crusade 285 

SECTION  II. 
Affairs  of  the  Eastern  Empire ,. 298 

SECTION  III. 
Expedition  against  Constantinople , .' 311 

SECTION  IV. 
Second  Siege  of  Constantinople 827 


CONTENTS. 

i 
CHAPTER  V. 

3W  |our 

SECTION  I. 
History  of  the  Latin  Empire  of  the  East Page  342 

SECTION    II. 
The  Fifth  Crusade...  ..361 


SECTION  III. 
fhe  Sixth  Crusade 380 

SECTION  IV. 
The  Seventh  Crusade 401 

SECTION  V. 
The  Eighth  Crusade 428 


CHAPTER  VI. 
Consequences  of  the  Crusades ..  453 


CRUSADERS  in  sight  of  Jerusalem FRONTISPIECE. 

The  Holy  Sepulchre TITLE 

Head-piece  to  Preface PAGE  3 

Head-piece  to  Contents 5 

Head-piece  to  Illustrations 9 

Pope  Urban  II.  preaching  the  First  Crusade,  at  the  Council  of  Cler- 

mont 13 

Head-piece  to  Chapter  1 17 

Ornamental  Letter 17 

A  Norman  Knight 21 

The  Normans  conquering  Sicily 22 

Charlemagne 26 

Mohammed 30 

Early  Career  of  Mohammed 31 

ftregory  VII 86 

3 


10  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGI 

Robert  Guiscard  ordering  his  ships  to  be  burned.., 38 

Tail-piece 40 

Peter  the  Hermit 41 

Ornamental  Letter 41 

Peter  the  Hermit  and  the  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem 42 

Peter  the  Hermit  preaching  the  First  Crusade 45 

Norman  Armour 55 

Ornamental  Letter 55 

Peter  the  Hermit  leading  the  First  Crusaders .. 58 

Tail-piece..., 64 

Armour 65 

Henry  IV 68 

Godfrey  of  Bouillon 69 

Siege  of  Rome 71 

Robert  of  Normandy  and  his  Father /2- 

A  Crusader 79 

Ornamental  Letter 79 

x\ 
.  The  Emperor  Alexius 90 

Regalia 96 

Ornamental  Letter..... . 96 

Tail-piece 104 

Head-piece 105 

Ornamental  Letter 105 

,A  Turkish  Encampment 11C 

Baldwin  seizes  Edessa 116 

Tail-piece 117 


ILLUSTRATIONS.  11 

PACK 

Antioch 118 

Ornamental  Letter 118 

Karallissar 124 

Capture  of  Antioch  by  the  Crusaders 125 

Robert  of  Normandy  slaying  the  Turk.. 129 

Head-piece 130 

Ornamental  Letter '130 

Bishop  Adhemar  blessing  the  Crusaders 141 

Tail-piece 152 

Jerusalem 153 

Ornamental  Letter 153 

Mount  Sion 157 

Godfrey  of  Bouillon 161 

Capture  of  Jerusalem 164 

Godfrey  of  Bouillon  elected  King  of  Jerusalem 172 

Tail-piece 175 

Ascalon 176 

Ornamental  Letter 176 

Tancred 181 

Funeral  of  Baldwin  I.,  King  of  Jerusalem 188 

Ruins  of  Tyre 190 

Tail-piece , '193 

Institution  of  the  Order  of  the  Knights  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem 194 

Armour 194 

Ornamental  Letter 195 


12  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGl 

Grand-Master  of  the  Knights  of  Malta 198 

Grand-Marshal  of  the  Knights  of  Malta 199 

Malta 201 

Knights  Templars 203 

Head-piece... 205 

Ornamental  Letter 205 

Queen  Eleanor  of  Aquitaine 211 

St.  Bernard  preaching  the  Second  Crusade 211 

Tail-piece 213 

Head-piece 214 

Ornamental  Letter 214 

Conrad  III... 217 

Passage  of  the  Meander 218 

Louis  VII.  defending  himself  against  the  Turks 219 

Damascus 221 

Tail-piece 223 

Arab  Encampment 224 

Ornamental  Letter..  224 

Noureddin  marching  on  Antioch 228 

Shiracouch 231 

Saladin 236 

Tail-piece 237 

Head-piece 238 

Ornamental  Letter 238 

Mecca...., 240 

Tail-piece 247 


ILLUSTRATIONS.  13 

PAGl 

Head-piece 248 

Ornamental  Letter 248 

Frederic  Barbarossa 252 

Head-piece... 257 

Ornamental  Letter 257 

Richard  Coeur  De  Lion. -. 260 

Rhodes 262 

Siege  of  Acre 264 

Movable  Towers 265 

Capitulation  of  Acre 266 

Tower  and  Battering-ram 266 

Richard  Coeur  de  Lion  at  Antioch 267 

Richard  I.  at  Azotus 272 

Hebron 275 

Richard  Coeur  de  Lion  at  Jaffa 280 

General  View  of  Jerusalem 284 

Head-piece 285 

Ornamental  Letter 285 

Henry  VI.,  Emperor  of  Germany 287 

Place  of  St.  Mark's,  Venice 293 

Street  in  Constantinople 298 

Ornamental  Letter 298 

Isaac  Angelus 304 

Tail-piece 310 

Dandolo,  Doge  of  Venice 311 

Ornamental  Letter v 311 


14  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGl 

Theodore  Lascaris , 327 

Ornamental  Letter 32< 

Desecration  of  the  Churches 334 

Tower  of  St.  Mark's,  Venice 335 

Ceremony  of  raising  an  elected  King  on  a  buckler 337 

Tail-piece,  Gethsemene 341 

Baldwin  I.,  Emperor  of  .the  East 342 

Ornamental  Letter 342 

.   Baldwin  II 354 

Head-piece 361 

Ornamental  Letter 361 

William  Longespee,  Earl  of  Salisbury 364 

•i 

Capture  of  Damietta  by  the  Crusaders 367 

Emperor  Frederic  II . 372 

Head-piece 3SO 

Ornamental  Letter 380 

Richard,  Earl  of  Cornwall 382 

Frederic  II <. 385 

Zingis  Khan 391 

Tail-piece 400 

View  on  the  Nile 401 

Ornamental  Letter 401 

Blanche  of  Castile 403 

Ilaco,  King  of  Norway 404 

Ships  of  the  13th  Century 405 

St.  Louis  in  captivity 416 


ILLUSTRATIONS.  15 

PAGB 

St.  Louis  entering  Ptolemais 419 

Tail-piece 427 

Head-piece 423 

Ornamental  Letter 428 

Death  of  St.  Louis 431 

Edward  I.  of  England 432 

Attempt  to  assassinate  Edward , 435 

Funeral  of  Robert  Guiscard 452 

Head-piece 453 

Ornamental  Le:ter 453 

Tail-piece 464 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  CRUSADES. 


CHAPTER   I. 

first  &r« 

FROM  A.D.  1095  TO  A.D.  1099. 


SECTION  I.— CAUSES  OF   THE  CRUSADES. 

> HE  terra  CRUSADE  is  derived 
from  the  French  word  Cr&isade, 
and  is  employed  to  designate 
that  series  of  extraordinary 
expeditions  undertaken  by  the 
Western  nations  of  Europe, 
during  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
centuries,  for  the  recovery  of 
the  Holy  Land  from  the  Saracens  and  Turks.  The 
space  of  time  consumed  in  these  strange  enterprises 


18  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

extends  over  nearly,  if  not  quite,  two  hundred  years, 
and  in  whatever  light  we  contemplate  them,  they  con- 
stitute one  of  the.  most  interesting  chapters  that  is 
to  be  found  in  the  annals  of  mankind.  Nothing  like 
them  had  been  seen  before  in  either  the  ancient  or 
the  modern  world,  and  nothing  like  them  has  been 
seen  since ;  and  it  is  the  object  of  the  present  volume 
to  investigate  the  causes  which  led  to  them,  to  de- 
scribe the  incidents  by  which  they  were  accompanied, 
and  to  estimate  the  consequences  that  followed  from 
them. 

The  predisposing  circumstances  which  led  to  those 
famous  enterprises,  and  thereby  impressed  such  singu- 
lar features  on  the  history  of  the  period,  are  to  be* 
sought  rather  in  the  general  aspect  and  feelings  of 
society  during  the  ages  immediately  antecedent,  than 
in  the  occurrence  of  any  particular  events.  Amid 
the  lawless  violence  which  preceded  and  attended  the 
settlement  of  the  feudal  system,  the  voice  of  religion 
could  seldom  be  heard  above  the  perpetual  din  of 
armed  rapine;  and  her  influence,  instead  of  being 
habitually  exercised  over  the  consciences  of  men,  was 
felt  only  with  startling  remorse  in  some  brief  interval 
of  sickness  or  calamity.  Then,  the  rude  and  super- 
stitious warrior,  with  the  same  untempered  energy  of " 
passion,  was  prepared  to  rush  at  once  from  the  perpe- 
tration of  atrocious  crime  to  seek  its  atonement  in 
exercises  of  the  severest  penance.  Equally  among 
churchmen  and  laity,  the  devotional  spirit  of  the 


CAUSES    OF    THE    CRUSADES.  19 

times,  such  as  it  was,  knew  no  other  mode  of  recon- 
cilement with  offended  Heaven,  than  in  these  acts  of 
mortification.  But,  if  many  sought  to  expiate  their 
guilt  in  the  passive  austerities  of  the  cloister,  it  was 
more  congenial  to  the  restless  and  enterprising  charac- 
ter which  marked  the  Northern  mind,  to  embrace  the 
encounter  with  fatigue  and  peril,  as  the  surest  test 
and  the  most  acceptable  tribute  of  repentant  faith. 
The  Romish  clergy,  therefore,  probably  only  indulged 
instead  of  creating  a  popular  inclination,  when,  in  the 
eighth  and  ninth  centuries,  they  began  to  commute 
the  more  ancient  penances  enjoined  by  the  canons  of 
the  church,  for  pilgrimages  to  Rome,  to  the  shrines 
of  various  saints,  and  above  all  to  Jerusalem.  The 
desire  of  visiting  the  places  where  celebrated  events 
have  occurred,  seems,  indeed,  a  curiosity  too  deeply 
implanted  in  our  nature  to  belong  to  any  particular 
time  or  condition  of  man ;  but  the  associations  con- 
nected with  the  hallowed  scene  of  human  redemption 
were  calculated  to  sanctify  this  feeling  with  peculiar 
interest,  and  had  rendered  journeys  to  Jerusalem  not 
uncommon  in  some  of  the  earliest  ages  of  Christianity. 
When  this  practice  was  communicated  to  the  Gothic 
nations,  the  love  of  pilgrimages  gradually  became 
almost  a  universal  passion ;  and  though  its  objects 
were  deformed  -by  the  grossness  of  superstition,  and 
its  course  much  diverted  to  Rome  itself,  and  to  those 
Bhrines  in  different  countries  at  which  pretended  mi- 
racles were  wrought,  especially  that  of  St.  James  at 


20  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

Compostella,  in  Spain,  the  stream  of  mistaken  yet 
sincere  devotion  continued  to  set  steadily  toward  the 
shores  of  Palestine. 

But  the  impulse  which,  above  all  others,  had  a  tend- 
ency to  increase  the  ardour  for  pilgrimages,  arose 
from  a  growing  belief,  early  in  the  tenth  century,  that 
the  end  of  the  world  was  at  hand.  It  was  imagined 
that  the  thousand  years  mentioned  in  the  Apocalypse 
would  speedily  be  fulfilled ;  that  the  reign  of  Anti- 
christ approached ;  and  that  the  terrors  of  the  last 
judgment  would  immediately  follow.*  In  proportion 
as  this  erroneous  interpretation  of  sacred  prophecy 
gained  wider  credence,  the  Western  World  became 
violently  agitated  with  fearful  forebodings  of  the 
destruction  which  awaited  the  earth ;  every  delusive 
form  of  propitiation  for  sin,  in  penance  and  pilgri- 
mage, was  eagerly  embraced ;  and,  as  it  was  concluded 
that  to  visit  the  scenes  of  redemption  was  both  a 
meritorious  and  a  preservative  act,  multitudes  annu- 
ally flocked  to  Jerusalem,  to  revive  and  recover  those 
hopes  of  salvation  which  withered  under  the  remem- 
brance of  habitual  guilt.  When  an  expedient  so  qui- 
eting to  the  consciences  of  men  in  a  state  of  society 


*  6%ron.Guil.Godelli,  (in  RecucifclcsITiytoriensFran^aia,  vol.  x.;)  p 
262.  De  Vic  et  de  Vaisette,  Hist,  de  Lanyncdoc,  vol.  ii.  p.  86-117,  &o. 
As  Robertson  has  remarked,  (Hist,  of  Charges  V.,  vol.  i.  note  13,) 
even  many  of  the  charters  of  the  tenth  century  have  for  prearr  ble, 
"Appropinquante  mundi  tcrmino,"  &c  ,  (seeing  that  the  end  of  tho 
world  is  at  hand.) 


CAUSES    OF    THE     CRUSADES. 


21 


A  Norman  Knight. 

equally  fruitful  of  crime  and  superstition,  had  once 
been  discovered,  inducements  were  not  wanting  for 
its  repetition ;  and  the  custom  surpassed  and  survived 
its  original  impulse  and  occasion.  Throughout  the 
tenth  and  eleventh  centuries,  the  passion  for  pilgrim- 
ages was  ever  on  the  increase ;  and  it  is  recorded  of  a 
single  company  which  visited  the  Holy  Sepulchre, 
about  the  middle  of  the  latter  age,  that  its  numbers 
were  no  fewer  than  seven  thousand  persons.* 

*  Tngulfus,  JTistoria,  p.  903,  904 


22 


THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 


The  Normans  conquering  Sicily. 

Foremost  among  the  devotees,  as  among  the  war- 
riors of  the  times,  were  the  Normans.  That  singular 
and  high-spirited  people,  in  every  respect  the  most 
remarkable  of  the  barbarian  races,  had  no  sooner  be- 
come converts  to  Christianity,  than  they  strangely 
infused  into  their  religious  profession  the  same  wild 
and  enthusiastic  temper,  the  same  ardour  for  adven- 
turous enterprise,  which  had  distinguished  their  pagan 
career.  The  conquest  of  Southern  Italy,  which  ori- 
ginated entirely  in  the  casual  return  of  their  pilgrims 
from  the  Holy  Land  through  that  theatre  of  Saracen 
warfare,*  is,  in  itself,  a  striking  memorial  both  of  their 
addiction  to  such  religious  journeyings,  and  of  the 

*  Leo  Ostiensis,  Chron.  Man.  Cassin,  lib.  ii.  c.  37.  Giannone,  Is- 
toria  di  Napoli,  vol.  ii.  p.  7. 


CAUSES    OF    THE    CRUSADES,  23 

equal  readiness  for  either  devout  or  martial  achieve- 
ment by  which  they  were  animated.  Traversing 
Italy  in  the  route  between  their  own  land  and  the 
Mediterranean  ports  which  communicated  with  Pales- 
line,  in  small  but  well-armed  bands,  the  Norman  pil- 
grims were  prepared  alike,  either  to  crave  hospitality 
in  the  blessed  name  of  the  Cross,  or  to  force  their  way 
at  the  point  of  the  lance.  Their  victorious  establish- 
ment in  Italy  tended  to  increase  their  intercourse  with 
the  East;  their  daring  assaults  upon  the  Byzantine 
empire,  though  foreign  to  our  present  subject,  attest 
their  undiminished  thirst  of  enterprise ;  and  we  shall 
find  the  sons  of  the  Norman  conquerors  of  the  Sicilies 
and  England  figuring  among  the  chief  promoters  and 
warriors  of  the  First  Crusade. 

Such  a  union  of  religious  and  martial  ardour,  how- 
ever, was  by  no  means  confined  to  the  Normans ;  and 
the  eleventh  century  was  marked,  throughout  Western 
Europe,  by  the  general  expansion  of  a  spirit,  of  which 
the  organized  result  may  be  numbered  among  the 
most  active  and  powerful  causes  of  the  crusades.  This 
was  the  institution  of  CHIVALRY.  The  rude  origin  of 
a  state  of  manners  so  extraordinary  in  itself,  and  so 
restricted  -to  the  descendants  of  the  great  Northern 
race,*  is  obviously  to  be  found  in  those  ceremonies 

*  The  want  of  all  resemblance  to  the  spirit  of  chivalry  in  the  man- 
ners and  sentiments  of  classical  antiquity  is  so  obvious,  that  it  might 
geem  a  work  of  supererogation  to  insist  on  the  fact;  if  an  accom- 
plished morlern  writer  (Hallam,  Middle  Ayes,  vol.  Hi.  p.  482)  had 


24  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

which,  among  their  ancestors  in  the  German  forests, 
attended  the  assumption  of  arms  by  the  youthful 

not,  in  rather  an  elaborate  passage,  cited  the  Achilles  of  Homer  as  a 
beautiful  portraiture  of  the  chivalric  character  "  in  its  most  general 
form."  On  this  position  it  may,  in  the  first  place,  be  remarked  as 
singular,  that  Mr.  Hallam  should  number  "a  calm  indifference  to  the 
cause  in  which  he  was  engaged"  among  the  qualities  of  the  Homeric 
hero,  as  suggesting  a  parallel  with  the  knightly  character;  of  which, 
enthusiastic  and  loyal  devotion  in  enterprise  formed  the  peculiar  attri- 
butes.  In  the  next  place,  the  resentment  of  Achilles  for  the  loss  of 
Briseis  merely  as  his  captured  property,  is  utterly  repugnant  to  that 
principle  of  respectful  idolatry  for  the  fair,  which  every  true  knight 
cherished  as  an  indispensable  article  in  his  creed  of  love  and  honour. 
In  fact,  the  most  irreconcilable  distinction  between  the  manners  of 
the  classical  and  Gothic  ages  rests,  as  we  have  before  had  occasion 
to  remark,  on  the  totally  opposite  estimation  of  woman.  Finally,  his 
conduct  of  Achilles,  both  in  suffering  the  inferior  herd  of  Greeks  to 
strike  the  corpse  of  Hector,  and  id  dragging  the  lifeless  body  of  the 
noble  and  fallen  antagonist  at  his  chariot  wheels,  would  have  been 
held  utterly  abhorrent  from  chivalric  ideas  of  courtesy;  and  Mr. 
Hallam,  a  few  pages  farther  on,  has  quoted  a  passage  from  a  chro- 
nicler of  the  thirteeeth  century,  which  denounces  the  act  of  insulting 
the  dead  body  of  an  enemy  as  the  lowest  depth  of  infamy.  Thus-, 
altogether,  to  say  nothing  of  the  absence  of  that  dedication  of  the 
sword  to  the  cause  of  Heaven,  which,  mistaken  as  it  was,  gave  a 
religious  impression  to  the  knightly  character,  the  portraiture  of 
Achilles  is  completely  destitute  of  those  qiialities  of  loyalty,  devoted- 
ness  to  woman,  and  courtesy  to  enemies,  which  Mr.  Hallam  himself 
justly  specifies  as  virtues  essential  to  chivalry.  That  lofty  energy 
of  the  soul  which  is  inspired  by  contempt  of  death  and  thirst  for 
glory,  and  displayed  in  daring  and  magnanimous  achievement,  con- 
stitutes, indeed,  the  vital  essence  of  heroism  under  every  form  of 
society ;  but  into  this  lifespring  of  action,  common  to  the  Grecian 
and  the  Gothic  warrior,  it  was  the  singular  peculiarity  of  the  chival- 
ric spirit  to  infuse  the  triple  incentive  and  sentiment  of  religious, 
Bocial,  and  amatory  obligation  ;  and,  instead  of  sustaining  the  parallel 


CAUSES    OP    THE    CRUSADES..  25 

warrior.*  In  subsequent  ages  the  same  forms  of  mar- 
tial investiture,  with  little  addition  or  variation,  were 
preserved  among  the  conquerors  of  the  Roman  empire, 
and  perpetuated  in  every  kingdom  which  they  had 
founded.  In  the  Lombard  annals ;  in  a  recorded  act, 
as  well  as  occasionally  in  the  capitularies  of  Charle- 
magne ;  and  in  the  chronicles  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  era, 
are  to  be  found  sufficient  evidence^  of  a  common  prac- 
tice in  the  ceremonial  investiture  of  knighthood.  We 
may  here  overleap  the  chain  of  circumstances  which, 
in  later  connection  with  feudal  and  social  obligations, 
imparted  to  the  spirit  of  chivalry,  which  in  the  outset 
was  only  essentially  martial,  its  more  graceful  virtues 
of  loyalty  and  honour,  courtesy  and  benevolence, 
generosity  to  enemies,  protection  to  the  feeble  and  the 
oppressed,  and  respectful  tenderness  to  woman.  To 
trace  the  growth  of  these  beautiful  attributes  of  chi- 
valry, as  a  moral  and  social  system,  belongs  not  to  our 
present  inquiry ;  and  it  will  suffice  to  notice  in  thin 
place  that  admixture  of  religious  ideas  and  duties  with 
a  military  institution,  which  converted  it  into  a  ready 
engine  of  superstitious  excitement,  and  singularly 


suggested,  the  Homeric  representation,  abounding  as  it  does  in  native 
sublimity  of  conception,  might,  with  more  propriety,  be  selected  for  a 
sufficient  example  of  the  contrast  between  the  heroic  character  in  the 
two  great  romantic  ages  of  the  ancient  and  modern  world. 

*  Tacitus,  De  Moribus  Germanorum,  c.  13. 

•{•  Paulus  Diaconus,  De  Gestis  Langobard,  c.  23,  24.  Vita  L»- 
doviri  Pii,  ad  Ann.  791.  Malmsbury.  lib.  ii.  c.  2. 


26 


THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 


Charlemagne. 

disposed  the  public  mind  of  Europe  for  any  enterprise 
of  fanatical  warfare. 

The  exact  epoch  at  which  chivalry  acquired  a  reli- 
gious character,  it  is  neither  easy,  nor  is  it  material, 
to  ascertain.  In  the  age  of  Charlemagne,  and  in  his 
empire  at  least,  the  form"  of  knightly  investiture  was 
certainly  unattended  by  any  vows  or  ecclesiastical 


CAUSES    OF    THE    CRUSADES.  27 

ceremonies.*  But,  in  the  eleventh  century,  it  had  be- 
come common  to  invoke  the  aid  of  religion  in  the  in- 
auguration of  the  knight ;  his  sword  was  laid  on  the 
altar,  blessed,  and  even  sometimes  girded  to  his  side, 
by  the  priest ;  and  his  solemn  vow  dedicated  its  use 
to  the  service  of  Heaven,  in  the  special  defence  of  the 
church,  as  well  as  the  general  protection  of  the  weak 
and  the  oppressed.  The  more  complete  conversion 
of  the  whole  process  of  investiture  into  a  religioua 
ceremonial;  the  previous  vigils,  confession,  prayer, 
and  receipt  of  the  sacrament ;  the  bath  and  the  robe 
of  white  linen,  as  emblems  of  purification ;  all  those 
preparations;,  in  short,  by  which  the  entrance  into  the 
knightly  career,  was  designedly  assimilated  to  that  into 
the  monastic  profession,  formed  the  growth  of  rather 
later  times.f  But  there  is  abundant  proof  of  the  suc- 
cess of  the  church,  before  the  Crusades,  in  infusing  some 
religious  principle  into  the  martial  spirit  of  chivalry .J 
For  this,  justice  has  scarcely  been  extended  to  the 
motives  of  the  Romish  clergy  by  different  classes  of 
writers,  who,  whether  from  indignation  at  the  real 
corruptions  of  that  church,  or  from  hostility  to  the 
cause  of  Christianity  itself,  can  discover  only  unmin- 
gled  evil  in  the  ecclesiastical  policy  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
But,  apart  from  the  lower  and  more  interested  purpose, 
in  itself  surely  not  unjustifiable,  of  converting  tho 

*  Vita.  Ludov.  Pii,  ubi  suprd. 

•j"  Du  Cange,  Glossarium  in  vv.  Arma,  Miles,  &c. 

J  Du  Oange,  in  v.  Miles.     Muratori,  Anfiq.  Med.  ^Evi.     Diss.  liii 


28  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

martial  temper  of  lawless  communities  into  a  means 
of  defence  for  the  church,  the  clergy  of  the  eleventh 
century  appear  to  have  laboured  with  a  zeal  and  sin- 
cerity above  suspicion,  in  mitigating  a  spirit  which 
they  could  not  subdue.  Their  efforts  to  soften  the 
ferocity  and  harmonize  the  feelings  of  the  times  by 
their  reprobation  of  private  wars  and  judicial  com- 
bats, are  deserving  of  all  praise  ;*  and  there  seems  no 
reason  to  doubt  that,  in  covering  the  ceremonies  of 
chivalry  with  the  sanction  of  religion,  their  policy 
was  originally  animated  by  a  principle  equally  praise- 
worthy. In  the  same  knightly  vows  which  they  de- 
manded or  registered  at  the  altar,  engagements  to  ab- 
stain from  secret  perfidy  and  open  wrong,  to  shield 
the  oppressed,  and  to  do  justice  to  all  Christian  men, 
were  at  least  mingled  with  the  obligation  of  fidelity 
and  protection  to  the  church  itself.  The  ultimate  ex- 
tension of  these  pledges  into  the  imaginary  duty  of 
warring  to  the  utterance  against  all  infidels,  was,  in- 
deed, as  incompatible  with  the  generally  peaceful  de- 
signs of  the  clergy,  as  it  was  repugnant  to  every  genu- 
ine precept  of  the  gospel.  But,  in  a  period  so  turbulent 
that  even  the  ordinary  social  virtues  could  be  no  bet- 
ter exercised  and  protected  than  at  the  sword's  point, 
a  warlike  and  ignorant  race  passed,  by  an  easy  and 
obvious  transition,  into  the  monstrous  error  of  believ- 
ing that  the  sincerity  of  their  faith  and  the  cause  of 

*  Gibbon,  Decline  and  FaU,  &c.  vol.  xi.  p.  41. 


CAUSES    Or    THE    CRUSADES.  29 

divine  truth  were  to  be  proven  and  upheld  by  the 
pame  carnal  weapon. 

This  doctrine  was  too  congenial  both  to  the  fierce 
manners  and  superstitious  feelings  of  the  laity  to  need 
the  suggestions  of  the  ecclesiastical  order  for  its  ex- 
citement ;  and  it  may  well  be  questioned  whether  the 
clergy  directed  or  merely  shared  or  obeyed  the  impulse 
of  the  times.  They  who  can  see  nothing  in  the  pil- 
grimizing  and  crusading  madness  of  the  tenth  and 
eleventh  centuries  but  the  influence  of  a  crafty  sys- 
tem of  ecclesiastical  policy,  attribute  to  the  clergy  a 
far  greater  superiority  of  intellect  over  the  spirit  of 
their  age  than  they  apparently  possessed,  only  to  fix 
the  deeper  stigma  upon  the  abuse  of  their  power.  It 
is  not  only  more  probable  in  itself,  but  more  consiet- 
e\it  with  historical  evidence,  to  conclude  that  they 
were  fervently  imbued  with  the  fanaticism  which  they 
are  accused  of  having  coolly  excited :  a  vast  number 
of  prelates  and  inferior  ecclesiastics  shared  in  the  toils 
and  dangers  of  pilgrimages  and  Crusades;  and  the 
sincerity  of  the  preachers  and  the  warriors  of  those 
expeditions  must,  in  general,  be  tried  by  the  same 
standard  of  mistaken  enthusiasm.  In  every  sense, 
indeed,  it  was  the  union  of  religious  and  martial  prin- 
ciples, first  effected  in  the  chivalric  institutions,  which 
prepared  and  prolonged  the  fanatical  madness  of 
Europe ;  the  profession  of  arms  became  hallowed  by 
its  presumed  dedication  to  the  service  of  Heaven ;  and 
we  may,  therefore,  enlarge  on  the  definition  of  a  cele- 


THE    FIRST    CBQSADE. 


Mohammed. 

brated  writer,  in  pronouncing  chivalry  to  have  been  at 
once  both  a  principal  cause  and  an  enduring  conse- 
quence of  the  Crusades.* 

Suchj  then,  through  the  united  influence  of  martial 
and  superstitious  feelings,  were  the  circumstances 
which  predisposed  the  nations  of  Western  Europe  for 
any  enterprise  of  fanatical  warfare.  The  immediate 
occasion  of  the  Crusades  must  be  related  in  retrospect 
to  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  affairs  of  both  the 
Byzantine  and  Mohammedan  empires.  During  a  long 
interval  of  above  four  centuries,  between  its  cap- 
ture by  Omar,  and  by  the  Seljukian  Turks,f  Jerusa- 

*  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall,  &c.  vol.  xi.  p.  41. 

f  Jerusalem  was  captured  by  the  Caliph  Omar,  A.  r.  637,  and  by 


CAUSES    OF    THE    CRCSADES.  31 


Early  career  of  Mohammed. 

lera  had  shared  the  vicissitudes  of  Saracen  revolution , 
and  the  treatment  both  of  its  Christian  inhabitants, 
and  of  the  pilgrims  who  thronged  to  its  sacred  places, 
was  variously  affected  by  the  temper  of  its  Mussulman 
lords.  After  the  fierce  spirit  of  intolerance,  which 
animated  the  Saracens  in  their  early  career  of  prose- 
lyting conquest,  had  subsided,  and  during  the  more 
tranquil  period  of  the  Khalifate,  no  obstacle  was  op- 
posed either  to  the  exercise  of  worship  by  residents, 
or  to  the  resort  of  devout  strangers.  The  spot  which 

logrul  Beg,  the  grandson  of  Seljuk,  a  Turkoman  chieftain,  whence 
the  name  Seljukian,  A.  D.  1076. 


QO 


THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 


tradition  had  assigned  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  together 
with  the  Church  of  the  Resurrection  originally  built  by 
Constantine  the  Great,*  were  left  in  possession  of  the 
Christians  ;  and,  satisfied  with  the  exaction  of  a  small 
tribute  from  every  inhabitant  and  pilgrim,  the  Saracen 
governors  even  encouraged  the  periodical  increase  of 
population  which  swelled  their  revenues.  The  reign 
.of  Haroun  Al  Raschid  was  especially  marked  as  a  pe- 
riod of  undisturbed  communication  between  the  Latin 
world  and  Jerusalem;  and  the  transmission  of  the 
keys  of  the  city  to  Charlemagne  by  that  Khalif,  though 
assuredly  not  designed  as  a  surrender  of  its  sovereign- 
ty, was  an  elegant  expression  of  esteem  for  the  empe- 
ror of  the  Western  Christians,  and  a  pledge  of  secure 
access  for  his  subjects.f 

When,  in  the  tenth  century,  Jerusalem  fell  under 
the  dominion  of  the  Fatimite  Khalifs  of  Egypt,  the 
resort  of  pilgrims  to  Jerusalem  was  equally  protected 
by  the  first  two  princes  of  that  dynasty,  who  were  not 
insensible  to  the  benefits  of  the  commercial  intercourse 
of  the  same  fleets  which  conveyed  these  devout  pas- 
sengers. But  when  the  frenzy  of  Hakem,  the  third 
Fatimite  Khalif,  instigated  him  to  destroy,  or,  at 
least,  greatly  to  injure,  the  Church  of  the  Resurrection 
and  the  Rock  of  the  Sepulchre,  the  horrors  of  a  perse- 


*  Euseluus,  in  Vita  Constantin.  lib.  iii.  c.  25. 
f  Eginharti  Vita  Caroli  Magni,  p.  80,  81.     Willermufl  Tyrensia 
Archiepiscopus,  {Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,")  p.  630. 


CAUSES    OP    THE    CRUSADES.  33 

cution  which  he  at  the  same  time  inflicted  on  the 
Christians  of  Jerusalem,  interrupted,  the  devotional 
visits  of  their  Western  brethren ;  and  the  report  of  his 
sacrilegious  tyranny  first  excited  that  indignation  of 
the  Latin  world  at  the  possession  and  profanation  of 
the  Holy  Sepulchre  by  infidels,  which  afterward  burst 
into  action  with  an  energy  so  tremendous.  Before 
the  institutions  of  chivalry  were  sufficiently  matured 
to  feed  this  kindling  spirit,  the  death  of  Hakem,  and 
the  return  of  his  successors  to  a  more  tolerant  policy, 
again  opened  the  shores  of  Palestine  to  the  devotion 
of  Europe ;  the  Church  of  the  Resurrection  rose  from 
its  ruins ;  the  Holy  Sepulchre  was  repaired ;  and  the 
custom  of  pilgrimage,  stimulated  by  its  temporary 
repression,  was  renewed  with  tenfold  ardour.  An  im- 
mense tide  of  population  flowed  from  every  Western 
country  toward  Jerusalem ;  and,  in  the  language  of  a 
contemporary  chronicler,  the  innumerable  multitude  of 
pilgrims  comprehended  the  lowest  and  middle  orders 
of  the  people,  counts,  princes,  and  dignified  prelates, 
and  even  women,  as  well  of  noble  as  of  poorer  condi- 
tion.* 

During  the  remaining  period  of  the  Fatimite  do- 
minion in  Palestine,  these  pious  visitants  continued  tc 
experience  from  the  Mussulman  tyrants  of  the  land,  in 
the  alternations  of  policy  and  caprice,  just  sufficient 
protection  to  encourage  their  concourse,  with  abundant 


*  Glaber,  lib.  iv.  in  Recueil  des  Hist.  Fran$ais,  vol.  x  p.  50. 

8 


34  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

injuries  to  exasperate  that  desire  of  vengeance  which 
they  communicated  to  the  whole  Western  world.  Pre- 
cisely when  this  feeling,  nourished  by  the  general  dis- 
positions in  the  social  state  of  Europe  to  which  we 
have  referred,  had  acquired  full  strength,  it  was  forced 
into  impetuous  action  by  one  of  those  sudden  and  vio- 
lent vicissitudes  of  revolution,  to  which  Asia,  in  every 
age  of  her  history,  has  been  subject.  In  their  rapid 
career  of  conquest,  the  Seljukian  Turks,  in  an  uncer- 
tain year  toward  the  close  of  the  eleventh  century, 
became  the  masters  of  Palestine.*  Those  recent  and 
fierce  converts  to  Islamism,  appearing  as  the  cham- 
pions of  the  Abassidan  Khalifs  of  Bagdad,  were  ani- 
mated with  equal  hatred  against  the  Fatiinite  posses- 
sors and  the  Christian  tributaries  of  Palestine;  and 
their  entrance  into  Jerusalem  was  marked  by  an  in- 
discriminate massacre.  The  fanatical  cruelty  of  a  race 
of  barbarians,  with  the  sanguinary  precepts  of  the 
Koran  freshly  engrafted  on  their  native  ferocity,  was 
untempered,  like  that  of  the  more  civilized  Saracens, 
by  any  motives  of  toleration  ;  the  Christian  clergy  in 
Jerusalem  were  frequently  tortured  and  imprisoned  in 
mere  wanton  fury,  or  for  the  sake  of  the  ransom  which 
their  sufferings  wrung  from  their  brethren ;  and  the 
Latin  pilgrims,  who,  in  defiance  of  danger,  were  still 
urged  by  pious  impulses  to  visit  the  Holy  Land,  were 
exposed  in  their  journey  through  it,  and  in  their  de- 

*  Willermus  Tyr.  p.  633. 


CAUSES    OF    THE    CRUSADES.  85 

votions  at  the  Sepulchre,  to  every  variety  of  insult 
and  spoliation  from  the  savage  and  greedy  Turks. 
The  reports  which  they  circulated  on  their  return, 
both  of  the  afflictions  of  the  church  of  Jerusalem  and 
of  their  own  endured  wrongs,  agitated  all  Christendom 
with  an  universal  sentiment  of  mingled  horror,  shame, 
and  vengeance,  at  the  profanation  of  the  holy  placoa 
of  Jerusalem,  the  imaginary  disgrace  of  suffering  the 
scenes  of  human  redemption  to  remain  in  the  hands 
of  sacrilegious  infidels,  and  the  conviction  that  the 
punishment  of  their  impious  atrocities  was  a  duty 
enjoined  equally  by  religion  and  by  honour.* 

While  these  feelings  were  shared  with  deep  sin- 
cerity alike  by  the  great  body  of  the  clergy  and  laity 
vf  Western  Europe,  .events  had  arisen  in  the  state  of 
the  Byzantine  empire,  which  gave  the  papal  see  an 
immediate  motive  of  political  interest  in  directing  the 
strong  impulse  of  the  age  to  a  religious  war.  When 
the  victorious  career  of  the  Seljukian  Turks,  under  Alp 
Arslan,f  began  to  threaten  the  safety  of  Constantino- 
ple itself,  the  Emperor  Michael  VII.,  in  the  extremity 
of  his  distress  and  terror,  grasped  at  a  faint  hope  of 
succour  by  addressing  himself  to  the  ruler  of  the 
Latin  church.  Through  a  mission  to  Pope  Gregory 


*  Willerinus  Tyr.  p.  634. 

f  Alp  Arslan,  "the  valiant  lion,"  was  the  nephew  and  successoi 
of  Togrul  Beg,  as  chief  of  the  Seljukian  Turks.  He  defeated  the 
Greek  Emperor,  Diogenes  Romanus,  in  1071,  and  was  slain  by  an 
assassin  in  ]  072. 


86 


THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 


Gregory  VII. 

VII.,  he  exposed  the  common  danger  of  Christendom 
from  the  new  growth  of  the  Mohammedan  power, 
declared  his  reverence  for  the  papal  authority,  and 
implored  its  exercise  for  his  aid  among  the  princes  of 
the  West.  Such  an  application,  which  seemed  to 
promise  the  submission  of  the  Greek  church  to  the 
papacy,  opened  views  of  aggrandizement,  too  congenial 
to  the  towering  ambition  and  adventurous  spirit  of 
Gregory  to  TDC  received  with  indifference;  and  he 
strenuously  exhorted  the  sovereigns  of  Europe,  by 
encyclical  epistles,  to  arm  against  the  infidels.  In 
these  letters  the  principal  recommendation  was  the 
union  of  the  two  churches  of  Christendom  for  a  gene- 
^al  armament  against  the  Turks ;  but  in  a  single  pas- 


CAUSES    OF    THE    CRUSADES.  37 

sage  announcing  that  fifty  thousand  warriors  had 
already  declared  their  willingness  to  be  led  to  the 
redemption  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  is  first*  plainly 
shadowed  out  the  great  subsequent  design  of  the  Cru- 
sades."}* 

The  proposal  of  Gregory  VII.  was  not  yet,  however, 
directed  with  sufficient  singleness  of  purpose  to  the 
shores  of  Palestine  to  inflame  the  kindling  enthusiasm 
of  the  West ;  and  the  opportunity  of  maturing  his  dar- 
ing project  was  reserved  for  his  successor  and  imitator, 
Urban  II.  A  renewal  of  the  supplication  which  had 
been  addressed  to  Gregory  was  produced  by  the  increas- 
ing distress  of  the  Eastern  empire  ;  and  the  subsequent 
connection  of  its  affairs  with  the  first  crusade  requires 
that  we  should  here  briefly  trace  the  thread  of  the 
Byzantine  annals  from  the  accession  of  Alexius  Comne- 
nus.  That  prince,  at  the  outset  of  his  reign,  found  his 
dominions  assailed  simultaneously  on  opposite  extremi- 
ties by  the  arms  of  the  Normans  of  Italy  and  the  Sel- 
jukian  Turks.  The  invasion  of  Greece  by  Robert 
Guiscard,  the  first  Norman  Duke  of  Calabria,  with  the 
magnificent  design  of  conquering  the  Eastern  empire, 
demanded  the  earliest  care  of  Alexius;  and,  though 

*  It  is  usual  to  infer  that  the  first  design  of  a  crusade  was  con- 
tained in  an  encyclical  letter  of  Pope  Sylvester  II.  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  eleventh  century.  But  the  object  of  his  epistle 
(Recueil  des  Hist.  Fran^ais,  vol.  x.  p.  425)  does  not  appear  to  have 
gone  beyond  the  obtaining  of  some  pecuniary  succour  from  Christen- 
dom for  the  distressed  church  of  Jerusalem. 

f  Epistote  Greg.  VII.  lib.  i.  ii.  &c.  (in  Labbe",  Concilia)  rol.  x.) 


•      Robert  Guiscard  ordering  his  ships  to  be  burned. 

tc 

his  resistance  was  gallant  and  vigorous,  his  defeat  by 
the  Norman  in  the  great  battle  of  Durazzo,  shook  the 
tottering  fabric  of  Byzantine  power  to  its  centre.  Ill 
this  war  Robert  Guiscard  ordered  his  ships  to  be  burned 
on  the  hostile  shores  of  Illyria,  to  prevent  his  soldiers 
from  having  any  hopes  of  retreat ;  and  this,  too,  in  the 
face  of  an  almost  innumerable  host  of  the  Eastern 
empire  gathered  together  for  the  defence  of  Durazzo. 
The  distraction  of  an  Italian  war  arrested  Guiscard  in 
the  subjugation  of  Greece,  and,  perhaps,  saved  Constan- 
tinople from  his  assaults:*  but  his  enterprise  had  fa- 
voured the  progress  of  the  Turks  in  the  eastern  pro- 
vinces of  the  empire ;  and  Alexius  was  compelled  to 
purchase  their  forbearance  by  the  formal  cession  of 


*  Anna  Commena,  Alexius,  lib.  iii.-v.  &c.     Galfridus  Malaterra, 
Hist,  (in  Muratori,  Scrip.  Rcr.  Ital.  vol.  v.)  lib.  iii.  c.  24-39. 


CAUSES    OF    THE    CRUSADES.  39 

Asia  Minor.  The  establishment  in  that  wealthy  re- 
gion, of  the  subordinate  Seljukian  kingdom  of  Roum, 
or  of  the  Romans — a  title  in  itself  insulting  to  the 
proud  pretensions  and  fallen  majesty  of  the  successors 
of  Constantine — contracted  the  eastern  frontiers  of 
their  empire  to  the  shores  of  the  Bosphorus  and  the 
Hellespont.  The  residence  of  Solyman,  the  Sultan 
of  Roum,  was  fixed  at  Nice  in  Bythynia,  within  a 
hundred  miles  of  Constantinople ;  and  the  Turkish 
outposts  were  separated  only  by  the  strait  from  the 
imperial  capital.  A  hollow  pacification  did  not  pre- 
vent Solymon  from  meditating  the  passage  of  that 
channel ;  and  his  preparation  of  a  naval  armament 
filled  Alexius  with  reasonable  alarm  for  the  safety  of 
the  European  remnant  of  his  dominions.*  Following 
the  example  of  Michael  VII.,  he  addressed  the  most 
earnest  entreaties  for  succour  to  the  Pope  and  the 
temporal  princes  of  Western  Christendom.f  The  inde- 
pendent partitions  of  the  Seljukian  conquests  on  the 
death  of  Malek  Shah,  and  the  decline  of  the  Turkish 
power  through  intestine  dissensions,  relieved  the 
pressure  on  the  Byzantine  empire ;  and  Alexius  was 
enabled  even  to  recover  some  portion  of  Asia  Minor 
from  the  successor  of  Solyman ;  but  his  envoys  were 


*  For  the  history  of  the  Turkish  conquest  of  Asia  Minor,  &c.,  vide 
De  Guignes,  vol.  i.  p.  244,  vol.  ii.  p.  1-12.  Also  the  original  ac- 
e<  unt  of  William  of  Tyre,  lib.  i.  c.  9,  10. 

•f  Guibcrt  Abbat  Hist.  HierosoL  p.  475,  476.  (Gala  Dei  pet 
Frxncos.) 


40  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

yet  resident  at  the  Papal  Court,  when,  by  an  instru- 
ment apparently  far  more  powerless,  that  spark  was 
struck  into  the  enthusiasm  of  Europe  which  threw  ita 
combustible  elements  into  one  general  conflagration  of 
religious  warfare. 


PREACHING    OF    THE    FIRST    CRUSADE.       41 


Peter  the  Hermit. 


SECTION  n. 


PREACHING  OF  THE   FIRST  CRUSADE. 


HE  name  and  story  of  the  ex- 
traordinary individual  who  lit 
up  this  unquenchable  flame 
of  fanaticism,  must  be  fa- 
miliar to  every  reader.  Peter 
the  Hermit  was  a  poor  gentle- 
man of  Picardy,  who,  after 
following  in  arms  his  feudal 
lord,  Eustace  de  Bouillon,  and 
vainly  attempting  to  improve 
his  fortunes  by  an  alliance 
with  a  lady  of  noble  family, 
had,  in  some  moment  either 


42 


THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 


Peter  the  Hermit  and  the  Patriarch,  of  Jerusalem. 

of  disappointed  ambition  or  of  awakened  remorse 
for  deeper  guilt,  escaped,  from  a  profitless  service 
and  a  distasteful  marriage,  to  the  refuge  of  the  cloister. 
But  the  resistless  fervour  of  spirit,  which  afterward 
produced  .effects  so  memorable,  led  him  shortly  to  de- 
sert the  monastic  profession  for  a  life  of  absolute  soli- 
tude ;  and  to  the  character  of  an  anchorite  he  next 
euperadded  that  of  a  pilgrim  to  the  Holy  Land.  The 
scenes  which  he  witnessed,  the  sufferings  which  he 
endured,  in  this  expedition,  were  of  a  nature  to  con- 
firm the  mental  distemper  which  had  been  nourished 
in  his  cell.  At  Jerusalem  his  indignation  was  ex- 
cited by  the  cruelties  of  the  Turks  to  the  Christian 
residents  <*nd  pilgrims  :  his  piety  was  shocked  at  the 
profanations  with  which  the  Holy  Sepulchre  was  in- 


PREACHING    OF    THE    FIRST    CRUSADE.        43 

suited  by  those  barbarian  infidels.  He  fancied  him- 
self inspired  by  Heaven  to  effect  its  deliverance  from 
their  hands ;  and,  in  a  conversation  with  the  Patriarch 
of  Jerusalem,  he  declared  his  purpose  to  rouse  the 
princes  and  people  of  the  West  to  avenge  the  disgrace 
of  Christendom.*  He  possessed  many  qualities  which, 
notwithstanding  an  unpromising  exterior,  peculiarly 
fitted  him  for  the  task  to  which  he  thoroughly  devoted 
himself.  He  was  inspired  with  the  genuine  spirit  of 
enthusiasm :  regardless  of  bodily  privation  and  fa- 
tigue, steadfast  in  purpose,  ardent  in  imagination,  and, 
above  all,  animated  by  that  admixture  of  pious  inten- 
tions with  personal  vanity,  which  has  deluded  the 
fanatic  of  every  age.  When  he  first  emerged  from 
obscurity,  and  burst  upon  the  world  as  the  preacher 
of  a  religious  war,  he  is  described  as  emaciated  by 
self-inflicted  austerities  and  wayfaring  toil;  diminu- 
tive in  stature ;  mean  in  appearance ;  and  clad  in 
those  coarse  weeds  of  a  solitary,  from  whence  he 
derived  his  surname  of  the  Hermit.  But  his  eye 
beamed  with  fire  and  intelligence ;  he  was  fluent  in 
speech;  and  the  vehement  sincerity  of  his  feelings 
supplied  him  with  the  only  eloquence  which  would 
have  been  intelligible  to  the  popular  passions  of  his 
times.f 

*  Willermuo  Tyr.  lib.  i.  c.  11.     Guibert  Abbat.  p.  482. 

•{•  Willermus  Tyr.  p.  637.  The  archbishop's  lively  portraiture 
of  the  fanatic  has  often  been  quoted : — Erat  autem  hie  idem  'staturd 
pusillus,  et  quantum  ad  exterwrem  hominem^ersonee  contemptabilit. 


THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

/ 

Having  obtained  from  the  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem 
/ers  of  credence  and  supplication  for  the  cause 
which  he  had  undertaken,  Peter,  on  his  return  to 
Europe,  repaired  at  once  to  the  Papal  Court,  and 
found  in  Urban  II.  an  astonished  but  ready  listener 
to  his  magnanimous  project.  The  pope  recognised, 
and,  perhaps,  sincerely  credited,  the  Divine  authority 
of  his  mission ;  but  the  views  of  Gregory  VII.  were 
not  forgotten  by  his  successor ;  and  motives  of  ambi- 
tion, sufficiently  strong  to  induce  his  assent,  must  have 
been  suggested  by  the  embassy  of  Alexius,  and  the 
desire  of  extending  the  authority  of  the  Papal  See 
over  the  churches  of  the  East.  The  probability  that 
schemes  of  mere  worldly  policy  were  at  least  mingled 
with  the  religious  impressions  of  Urban  II.  is  increased 
by  the  assertion  of  a  well-informed  writer  of  his  times,* 
that  he  had  -recourse  to  a  temperate  counsellor,  who 
had  in  his  own  person  proved  the  weakness  of  the 
Byzantine  empire.  This  was  Boemond,  natural  son  of 
Robert  Guiscard,  who  had  attended  his  father  in  his 
daring  invasion  of  Greece,  and  whose  ambitious  spirit 
was  now  impatiently  restrained  within  the  narrow 
limits  of  a  Neapolitan  fief.  The  Norman  prince, 

Sed  major  -in  exiyuo  reynabat  corpore  virtus.  Vivacis  enim  ingemi 
crat,  et  oculum  habcns  prrspicacem ;  gratumque,  et  sponte  fluens  e\ 
non  deerat  eloquium.  (This  man  was  little  in  stature  and  contempt- 
ible in  appearance ;  but  there  reigned  within  that  slight  body  a  very 
courageous  spirit.  He  possessed  a  lively  genius,  and  had  a  quick, 
clear  eye ;  nor  was  he  wanting  in  agreeable  and  ready  eloquence.) 
*  Mahnsbury,  p.  407 


PREACHING    OF    THE    FIRST    CRUSADE.        45 

whose  selfish  and  wily  character  strikingly  developed 
itself  in  the  subsequent  events  of  the  Crusade,  was 
little  influenced  by  the  devotional  fervour  of  the  age ; 
and,  if  his  advice  determined  Urban  to  direct  the 
enthusiasm  of  Europe  to  the  shores  of  Palestine,  >we 
may  readily  believe  the  chronicler  that  it  was  founded 
more  upon  political  than  religious  considerations.* 

However  this  may  have  been,  the  Hermit  of  Picardy 
quitted  the  Papal  Court  strengthened  by  the  approba- 
tion and  the  promises  of  the  spiritual  chief  of  Christen- 
dom ;  and,  travelling  over  Italy  and  France,  he  every- 
where proclaimed  the  sacred  duty  of  delivering  the 
sepulchre  of  Christ  from  the  hands  of  the  infidels. 
Unless  we  bear  in  mind  the  prodigious  influence  of 
those  superstitious  and  martial  feelings  which  together 
absorbed  the  passions  of  a  fierce  and  ignorant  age,  it 
is  difficult  to  conceive  the  recorded  effects  of  the  Her- 
mit's preaching ;  and  language  has  been  exhausted  in 
describing,  after  contemporary  authorities,  the  innu- 
merable crowds  of  all  ranks  which  thronged  cities  and 
hamlets,  churches  and  highways,  at  his  voice ;  the 
tears,  the  sighs,  the  indignation  excited  in  these  mul- 
titudes by  his  picture  of  the  wrongs  of  their  Christian 
brethren,  and  the  sacrilegious  defilement  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre ;  the  shame  and  remorse  which  followed  his 
reproaches  at  the  guilty  supineness  that  had  aban- 


*  Pandul.  Pisanus,  Vita  Urbanii  II.  (in  Script.  Rerum  Ital.  vol 
Hi.)  p.  352.     Willermus  Tyr.  p.  638.     Malmsbury,  uli  suprd 


46  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

domed  the  blessed  scenes  of  redemption  to  the  insults 
of  infidels ;  the  eager  reception  of  his  injunctions  to 
every  sinner  to  seek  reconcilement  with  Heaven  by 
devotion  to  its  cause ;  and  the  rapture  which  his  de- 
nunciations of  vengeance  against  the  Saracen  enemies 
of  God  awakened  in  the  stern  hearts  of  congregated 
warriors.  The  fanatical  austerity  of  the  preacher, 
which  was  proclaimed  in  his  withered  form,  his  squalid 
attire,  and  his  abstemious  diet ;  the  voluntary  poverty 
which  distributed  to  the  indigent  the  arms  vainly  de- 
signed for  its  own  relief;  the  rude  eloquence  of  speech 
and  gesture,  which  flowed  from  impassioned  sincerity, 
were  all  in  deep  unison  with  the  religious  sentiments 
of  his  hearers :  the  appeal  to  arms  roused,  with  irre- 
sistible strength,  that  double  excitement  of  devotion 
and  valour  which  animated,  as  with  a  blended  and  in- 
separable principle,  the  Christian  chivalry  of  Europe.* 
The  pope  had  dismissed  the  Hermit  with  the  as- 
surance that  he  would  strenuously  support  his  great 
design ;  and  the  enthusiasm  which  Peter  had  awakened 
by  his  preaching  was  restrained  from  bursting  into 
action,  only  by  eager  expectation  of  the  fulfilment  of 
the  pledge.  At  Piacenza,  Urban  first  convoked  the 
prelates  of  Italy  and  the  neighbouring  regions;  four 
thousand  inferior  clergy,  and  thirty  thousand  lay  per- 
sons, are  computed  to  have  flocked  to  the  scene; 


*  Willermus  Tyr.  p.  638.     Guibert,  p.  482.     Fulcherius  Carno- 
tensis,  (Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,}  p.  381. 


PREACHING    OF    THE    FIRST    CRUSADE.        47 

[A.  D.  1095,  March;]  and,  the  legates  of  the  Eastern 
Emperor  having  been  admitted  into  the  assembly  to 
expose  the  dangers  which  menaced  their  country  and 
nil  Christendom  from  the  progress  of  the  Turks,  and 
to  implore  the  aid  of  the  nations  of  the  West  against 
the  infidels,  it  was  resolved  to  promote  the  demand, 
and  to  mature  the  design  of  a-  holy  war,  by  the  au- 
thority of  a  more  general  Council.*  Urban  was  di- 
rected, in  his  choice  of  a  place  for  its  assemblage,  by  the 
partialities  of  birth,  by  the  predominant  martial  and 
religious  spirit  of  his  native  country,  France,  and  by 
the  special  invitation  of  Raymond,  Count  of  Thoulouse. 
Clermont,  the  capital  of  Auvergne,  was  appointed  for 
the  seat  of  the  Council,  at  which  the  pope  in  person 
presided,  and  an  immense  multitude  of  clergy  and  laity 
of  all  ranks,  from  France,  Italy,  and  Germany,  gave 
their  attendance.  [Nov.  1095.]  During  the  first  week 
after  the  opening  of  the  Council,  its  deliberations  were 
chiefly  engaged  in  the  enactment  of  some  general  pro- 
visions for  the  improvement  of  morals  and  the  repres- 
sion of  private  war;  but,  on  the  ninth  morrow  of  the 
session,  the  pope  himself  ascended  an  elevated  pulpit 
in  the  open  air,  and  preached  the  sacred  duty  of  re- 
deeming the  sepulchre  of  Christ  from  the  infidels,  and 
the  certain  propitiation  for  sin  by  devotion  to  this 
meritorious  service.  His  fervent  exhortations  were 
addressed  to  a  multitude  already  deeply  imbued  with 

f  P.  Pisan.    Vita  Urban,  p.  353.  Labb£,  Concilia,  vol.  x.  p.  499,  &o. 


48  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

fanatical  purpose ;  his  inference  of  a  divine  command 
for  the  holy  war  was  interrupted  by  one  universal  and 
tumultuous  cry  of  "  It  is  the  will  of  God ;"  and  the 
slightly  varied  acclamations  of  Deus  vult,  Dieux  el  volt, 
and  Deus  lo  volt,  expressed  the  common  enthusiasm 
of  the  clergy  and  the  people,  while  it  marks  the  pure 
retention  of  the  Latin  tongue  in  the  familiar  speech  of 
ecclesiastics,  and  the  popular  corruptions  which  it  had 
undergone  into  the  two  great  northern  and  proven^al 
dialects  of  France.  At  the  instant  when  their  cries 
resounded  throughout  the  vast  assembly,  the  figura- 
tive injunction  of  Scripture  to  the  sinner,  to  take  up 
the  cross  of  Christ,  suggested  to  Urban  the  idea  that 
all  who  embraced  the  sacred  enterprise  should  bear 
on  their  shoulder  or  breast  that  symbol  of  salvation. 
The  proposal  was  eagerly  adopted ;  the  Bishop  of  Puy 
first  solicited  the  pope  to  affix  the  holy  sign  in  red 
cloth*  on  his  shoulder ;  and  the  example  being  imme- 
diately followed,  the  cross  became  the  invariable  badge 
of  the  profession,  while  it  gave  an  enduring  title  to 
the  warfare  of  the  Croisse  or  Crusader.  The  first 
temporal  prince  who  assumed  the  cross  was  the  Count 
of  Thoulouse;  and  his  offers,  through  his  ambassa- 

*  It  has  been  observed  by  Gibbon,  aAer  Du  Cange,  that  although 
in  the  first  Crusade  red  was  the  general  colour  of  the  cross,  different 
hues  were  subsequently  adopted  as  national  distinctions  :  red  by  the 
French,  green  by  the  Flemings,  and  white  by  the  English.  Yet  the 
-ed  cross  of  St.  George  was  early  our  national  emblem,  and  still 
proudly  floats  on  that  banner  which  "  a  thousand  years  has  braved 
the  battle  and  the  breeze." 


PREACHING    OF    THE    FIRST    CRUSADE.        49 

dors,  to  devote  his  powerful  resources,  as  well  as  his 
person,  to  the  cause,  were  hailed  with  admiration. 
Before  the  Council  broke  up,  Ad  hem ar,  the  Bishop  of 
Puy,  was  invested  by  Urban  with  full  authority  as 
papal  legate  for  the  conduct  of  the  expedition ;  and 
the  following  spring  was  appointed  for  the  period  of 
its  departure  to  the  East.* 

The  decision  of  the  Council  of  Clermont  was  wel- 
comed throughout  the  Latin  world  with  joyful  assent; 
and  Europe  echoed  with  the  clang  of  warlike  prepara- 
tion for  the  sacred  enterprise.  France,  Italy,  ana 
Germany  were  inspired  with  a  common  ardour;  the 
same  spirit  was  communicated  to  the  British  Islands, 
and  penetrated  the  remoter  region  of  Scandinavia  ;f 
and,  if  Spain  did  not  equally  respond  to  the  call,  it 
was  only  because  the  Christian  chivalry  of  Castile  and 
Arragon  were  already  occupied  on  a  nearer  theatre  of 
religious  hostility,  in  the  long  contest  with  their  Sara- 


*  Willermup  Tyr.  p.  639-641.  Guibert,  p.  478-480  Fulcher. 
p,  382.  Baldricus  Arch,  (also  in  Gesta  Dei,)  p.  79-88.  Labbe", 
Concilia,  vol.  x. 

•{•  Malmsbury  whimsically  involves  his  picture  of  the  universal  ex- 
tent of  the  crusading  ardour,  in  an  allusion  to  national  habits :  "  The 
Welshman  forsook  his  hunting ;  the  Scot  his  companionship  with 
vermin;  the  Dane  his  carouse;  and  the  Norwegian  his  raw  fish," 
p.  416.  Among  the  distinguished  personages  who  joined  the  first 
(jrusade  from  our  own  island,  were  Stephen,  the  English  Norman 
Karl  of  Albemarle,  Odo,  Bishop  of  Bayeux  and  Earl  of  Kent,  (Dug 
dale,  Baronage,  vol.  i.  p.  23,  61,)  and  perhaps  (L!  Art  de  Verifier 
les  Dates,  vol.  i.  p.  842)  a  son  of  Malcolm  Ceanmore,  King  of  Scot- 
land. 

4 


50  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

cen  enemies.*  In  every  country,  and  among  all  ranks 
and  conditions  of  men,  the  master  passions  of  fanatical 
and  martial  zeal  were  fed  by  various  impulses  of  ac- 
tion. The  chief  inducement,  beyond  doubt,  was  a 
canon  of  the  Council  of  Clermont,  by  which  the  per- 
formance of  the  crusading  vow  was  accepted  as  a  full 
equivalent  for  all  ecclesiastical  penances.  This  decree 
is  memorable  in  itself  as  having  first  suggested,  or  at 
least  rapidly  extended,  the  idea  of  granting  plenary 
indulgences  :  the  sale  of  which  for  money  was  after- 
ward converted,  by  the  cupidity  of  the  popes,  into  so 
profitable  an  expedient  for  replenishing  their  coffers, 
and  became  the  most  scandalous  practical  corruption 
of  the  Romish  Church.f 

To  the  feudal  nobility  and  their  followers,  the  com- 
mutation of  penances  for  a  military  enterprise  was 
peculiarly  grateful.  The  anathemas  of  the  church 


*  The  sacred  and  meritorious  character  of  the  warfare  against  the 
Spanish  Saracens  had  been  already  recognised  by  the  popes.  In  the 
conquest  of  Toledo,  (A.  D.  1085,)  Alfonzo  VI.  had  been  assisted  by 
many  foreign  knights ;  and,  when  pressed  in  the  following  year  by 
the  African  Saracens,  he  was  succoured  by  the  chivalry  of  France. 
J.t  has  even  been  contended  (Mailly,  Esprit  des  Croisades,  vol.  ii. 
p.  91)  that  their  auxiliary  expedition  should  be  numbered  as  the 
first  of  the  Crusades ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  is  was  considered  as 
a  holy  war,  and  must  have  familiarized  the  French  nobles  with  the 
idea  of  such  enterprises — though  its  memory  has  been  eclipsed  by 
the  superior  importance  of  the  subsequent  design  for  the  redemption 
of  the  Sepulchre. 

f  Labbe,  Concilia,  vol.  x.  p.  507.  Mosheim,  Eccles.  Hist  Cent,  xii 
I*  2.  c.  3.  Muratori,  Antiq.  Med.  ^Evi.  Diss.  Ixviii. 


PREACHING    OF    THE    FIRST    CRUSADE.        51 

against  private  wars,  the  enforcement  of  the  truce  of 
God,  and  the  prohibition  to  bear  arms,  or  to  mount  on 
horseback,  which  the  clergy  often  employed  as  a  form 
of  penance,  were  all  grievous  to  an  order  in  whom 
the  love  of  arms  and  rapine  struggled  with  the  terrors 
of  superstition.  An  injunction  to  religious  warfare, 
which  relieved  their  fears,  while  it  promised  free  in- 
dulgence to  their  favourite  pursuits,  was  gladly  em- 
braced as  the  very  easiest  mode  of  reconciling  their 
usual  course  of  life  with  expiation  for  its  disorders ; 
and  so  admirable,  in  the  judgment  of  the  age,  ap- 
peared this  discovery  of  a  mode  of  atoning  for  its 
prevalent  crimes  by  their  very  repetition,  that  a  chro- 
nicler emphatically  eulogizes  it  as  a  new  kind  of  salva- 
tion.* Nor  were  there  wanting  the  worldly  incentives 
of  avarice,  ambition,  and  renown,  still  further  to  ani- 
mate the  mistaken  sense  of  religious  duty.  The 
exaggerated  tales  of  pilgrims  and  traders  were  filled 
with  pictures  of  oriental  wealth ;  the  subjugation  of 
Asia  seemed  an  easy  and  glorious  achievemnt;  and 
the  chivalry  of  Europe  already  shared  in  imagination 
the  countless  treasures  and  fertile  provinces  of  the 
gorgeous  East.f 

By  the  remaining  classes  of  society,  the  same  min- 
gled influence  of  spiritual  and  temporal  motives  was 
equally  felt.  While  numbers  of  the  clergy  sincerely 

*  "Novum  salutis  genus  "     Guibert,  p.  471;  (a  new  kind  of  sal- 
vation.) 
f  Idem,  p.  554,  555. 


52  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

shared  the  general  fanaticism,  the  conquest  of  Asia 
opened  prospects  of  wealthy  establishments  to  the 
higher  order  of  ecclesiastics ;  the  monks  found  at  least 
a  meritorious  occasion  of  escape  from  the  irksome 
restraint  of  the  cloister,  and  the  peasantry  from  feudal 
bondage  to  the  soil.  Under  the  pretence  of  a  holy 
purpose  which  it  was  decreed  sinful  to  prevent,  debt- 
ors were  protected  both  from  the  present  demands  of 
their  creditors  and  the  accumulation  of  interest  during 
their  absence ;  criminals  were  permitted  to  elude  the 
pursuit  of  justice;  and  offenders  of  every  degree, 
under  the  special  safeguard  which  the  church  threw 
over  the  performance  of  their  vows,  were  enabled  to 
defy  the  vengeance  of  the  secular  law.*  Lastly,  even 
the  speculations  of  an  infant  commerce  assisted  the 
general  excitement;  and  the  merchants  of  Italy,  in 
particular,  engaged  with  avidity  in  enterprises  from 
which,  in  effect,  they  alone,  by  the  establishment  and 
extension  of  a  lucrative  maritime  trade,  derived  any 
solid  and  durable  advantage. 

Yet  all  these  were  but  the  secondary  motives  of 
that  one  mighty  impulse,  under  which  all  the  ordi- 
nary considerations  of  life,  all  the  ties  which  bind 
men  to  home  and  country,  to  kindred  and  possessions, 
were  alike  disregarded.  To  obtain  funds  for  so  dis- 
tant and  expensive  an  enterprise,  princes  and  high 
nobles  mortgaged,  or  even  alienated  their  vast  do- 

*  See  Du  Gauge,  in  v.  Crucis  Privilegium,  and  the  authorities 
there  cited. 


PREACHING    OF    THE    FIRST    CRUSADE.        55 

mains ;  warriors  of  inferior  rank  either  wholly  aban- 
doned their  feudal  estates  and  obligations,  or  pre- 
pared to  follow  their  lords  in  voluntary  service ;  lands 
were  everywhere  converted  into  money ;  horses,  arms, 
and  means  of  transport  were  collected  at  exorbitant 
prices;  and  valuable  property  of  all  kinds  was  reck- 
lessly sacrificed  on  the  most  inadequate  terms  to 
colder  or  craftier  dealers.  Yet,  even  among  such,  the 
irresistible  force  of  example  often  prevailed ;  the 
awakening  conviction  of  duty,  the  thirst  of  glory,  or 
the  dread  of  reproach,  was  gradually  imparted  to 
every  bosom  not  wholly  insensible  to  religion  and 
honour;  and  the  prudent  or  designing  purchaser  in 
one  hour,  was  himself  the  deluded  seller  in  the  next. 
Nor  was  the  contagion  of  fanatical  adventure  confined 
to  the  chivalric  order.  Not  only  ecclesiastics  deserted 
their  benefices,  and  monastic  recluses  their  cells,  but 
mechanics  and  rustics  forsook  their  occupations,  and 
exchanged  their  implements  of  industry  for  weapons 
of  offence ;  and  women  of  all  ranks,  with  an  aban- 
donment of  the  more  timid  and  becoming  virtues  of 
their  sex,  which  produced  equal  misery  and  scandal, 
either  left  their  husbands  behind  them,  or,  with  their 
children,  swelled  and  encumbered  the  unwieldy  masses 
of  helpless  pilgrims.*  Moreover,  the  superstitious 

*  G-uibert,  p.  481.  Albertus  Aquensis,  {Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,} 
p.  185.  Guibert  has  a  passage  which  too  curiously  illustrates  the 
madness  of  the  prevalent  fanaticism  to  be  passed  without  notice  in 
thb  place.  Deluded  rustics  yoked  their  oxen,  shod  like  horses,  to 


54  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

confidence  of  atonement  for  past  crimes,  and  the  ex- 
pectation of  license  for  future  enormities,  equally 
attracted  the  vilest  portion  of  mankind.  Robbers, 
murderers,  and  other  criminals  of  the  deepest  dye, 
professed  their  design  to  wash  out  their  guilt  in  the 
blood  of  the  enemies  of  God.*  The  aggregate  of  the 
immense  multitudes  who  thus  assumed  the  cross  could 
scarcely  be  accurately  computed,  in  an  age  so  unfa- 
vourable for  collecting  the  details  of  statistical  calcu- 
lation. By  one  chronicler  it  is  vaguely  estimated  at 
six  millions  of  persons ;  f  by  a  less  credulous  contem- 
porary it  is  denied  that  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  West 
could  supply  so  vast  a  host ;  J  but  even  the  exaggera- 
tion proves  that  the  original  design  of  enthusiasm 
would  have  totally  depopulated  Europe;  and,  after 
making  every  deduction  for  the  influence  of  delay, 
returning  reason,  and  4he  accidents  of  life,  in  cooling 
the  first  burst  of  fanatical  fervour,  the  numbers  which 
actually  fulfilled  their  purpose  justify  the  assertion 
that  whole  nations  rather  than  the  mere  armies  of 
Western  Christendom,  were  precipitated  upon  Moham- 
medan Asia. 

carts,  in  which  they  placed  their  families  and  goods  to  perform  the 
sacred  journey  ;  and  it  was  plank  joco  aptissimum  (very  amusing)  to 
bear  the  children  inquiring,  as  they  approached  any  city,  whethei 
tiat  were  Jerusalem,  p.  482. 

*  Wilermus  Tyr.  p.  641.     Albertus  Aquensis,  ubi  suprd. 

f  Fulcherius  Carnot.  p.  386. 

J  Guibert,  p.  556. 


CRUSADES    BY    THE    PEOPLE. 


55 


Norman  Armour. 


SECTION  m 

PETER  THE  HERMIT— THE  CRUSADES  UNDERTAKEN 
BY  THE  PEOPLE. 

*?=*._  ONG  before  the  season,  the 
end  of  spring,*  fixed  by 
the  Pope  for  the  depart- 
ure of  the  Crusaders  had  expired, 
the  impatience  of  the  ruder  mul- 
titudes of  people  grew  too  vio- 
lent for  restraint.  [A.  D.  1096, 
•  March.]  Soon  after  the  com- 
mencement of  the  new  year,  an  immense  concourse  of 
pilgrims,  chiefly  of  the  lowest  orders,  had  thronged 

*  And  not  the  "  Feast  of  the  Assumption  in  August,"  as  Gibbon 
has  stated.  See  the  interesting  version  of  the  speech  of  Urban,  in 
the  Council  of  Clermont,  as  given  by  William  of  Malmsbury. 
The  first  detachment  under  Godfrey,  Duke  of  Lorraine,  set  out  by 
way  of  Hungary  in  March,  1096 


56  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

around  Peter  the  Hermit  on  the  western  frontiers  of 
France,  and  urged  him,  as  the  original  preacher  of 
the  sacred  enterprise,  to  assume  its  conduct.  Ap- 
parently unconscious  of  his  utter  unfitness  for  com- 
mand, the  fanatic  rashly  accepted  the  perilous 
charge;  and,  under  his  guidance,  the  accumulating 
torrent  began  to  sweep  over  Germany.*  Its  immense 
tide  overflowed  the  ordinary  channels  of  communi- 

*  Before  we  accompany  the  disorderly  march  of  the  mob  which 
thus  commenced  the  First  Crusade,  it  behooves  us  to  specify  our 
principal  guides  throughout  the  expedition.  These  are  the  original 
authorities  contained  in  the  great  collection  of  Bongarsius,  which  he 
printed  at  Hanover,  in  two  folio  volumes,  in  1611,  under  the  general 
title  of  Gesta  Dei  per  Francos;  a  designation  which  Jortin  pithily 
proposed  to  change  into  Gesta  Diaboli,  &c.  The  actual  eye- witnesses 
of  the  First  Crusade,  whose  relations  are  to  be  found  in  the*  collection 
of  Bongarsius,  were,  1.  Robert  the  Monk,  (Hist.  Hierosolymitanaf) 
2.  Raymond  de  Agiles,  chaplain  to  the  Count  of  Thoulouse,  during 
the  Crusade,  (Hist.  Francorum ;)  and  3.  Fulcher,  also  a  chaplain, 
who  accompanied  the  Count  of  Chartrcs,  and  afterward  attached  him- 
self to  Baldwin,  brother  of  the  great  Godfrey,  and  second  king  of 
Jerusalem,  (Gesta  Peregrinantium  Francorum);  4.  next  in  the  order 
of  testimony  Ls  the"  work  of  an  archbishop,  Baldric,  (Hist.  Hieroso- 
lym.,}  who  assisted  at  the  Council  of  Clermont,  and  whose  relation, 
although  he  did  not  himself  accompany  the  expedition,  is  declared  tc 
have  been  revised  by  an  abbot  who  did  so ;  5.  Albert  of  Aix,  (Hist. 
Hierosol.  Expeditionis  ;)  and  6.  Guibert,  (the  title  of  whose  Chronicle, 
Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,  it  was  that  Bongarsius  adopted  for  the  whole 
collection,)  were  contemporaries,  and  the  latter  was  a  keen  observer 
and  lively  narrator;  7.  and  lastly,  William,  Archbishop  of  Tyre, 
already  so  often  quoted,  whose  history,  although  he  was  not  contem- 
porary with  the  First  Crusade,  is,  perhaps  from  the  materials  of  in- 
formation to  which  he  had  access,  and  the  judgment  with  which  he 
compiled  them,  the  most  valuable  document  in  the  whole  collec- 
tion. 


CRUSADES  BY  THE  PEOPLE.        57 

cation;  and  devastation  marked  its  course.  The 
roads  were  obstructed  by  the  multitude  of  passengers ; 
the  country  through  which  they  moved  was  oppressed 
by  their  excesses;  the  means  of  subsistence  were  ex- 
hausted by  their  wants;  and  Peter  was  compelled  to 
exhort  them  to  separate  into  smaller  masses.  Under 
the  commaud  of  Gualtier,  or  Walter,  a  Burgundian 
knight,  whose  poverty  procured  for  him  the  surname 
of  Sans-Avoir,  or  the  Pennyless,  and  who  accepted  tho 
office  of  lieutenant  to  the  Hermit,  a  body  of  twenty 
"thousand  pilgrims  preceded  the  march  of  the  main 
host  through  Hungary  and  Bulgaria  toward  Con- 
stantinople. The  wretched  quality  of  the  adven- 
turers who  composed  this  advanced  guard  is  suf- 
ficiently indicated  by  the  fact  that  there  were  only 
eight  horsemen  in  the  whole  number,  and  their  con- 
duct was  as  reckless  as  their  condition  was  deplorable. 
Through  Hungary,  they  were  indebted  for  a  safe 
though  toilsome  passage,  to  the  friendly  disposition  of 
its  king,  Carloman,  and  Christian  people ;  but,  on  their 
entrance  into  the  still  wilder  regions  of  Bulgaria, 
which  were  governed  by  a  lieutenant  of  the  Byzantine 
empire,  they  encountered  every  possible  obstacle,  both 
from  the  treacherous  policy  of  the  imperial  officers, 
who  forbade  the  supply  of  their  necessities,  and  from 
the  ferocious  temper  of  the  natives.  Hunger  com- 
pelled the  crusaders  to  resort  to  violence;  the  Bul- 
garians flew  to  arms,  and  the  route  of  Walter  and  his 
followers  was  tracked  in  blood  and  flames.  But  in 


58  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

every  day's  march,  the  natives  cut  off  hundreds  of  the 
miserable  rabble;  and  the  destruction  of  the  whole 
host,  before  it  reached  the  southern  confines  of  Bul- 
garia, was  so  complete,  that  only  Walter  and  a  few 
survivors  succeeded,  by  a  flight  through  the  forests,  in 
reaching  the  Court  of  Constantinople.* 

The  second  division  of  the  crusading  mob,  under 
Peter  the  Hermit  himself,  amounting  to  forty  thou- 
sand men,  women,  and  children,  followed  on  the 
traces  of  the  first  body.  Aided  by  the  good  offices  of 
the  Hungarian  king,  their  march  through  his  country 
was  abundantly  supplied,  and  tranquilly  pursued, 
until  they  reached  Malleville,  the  modern  Zemlin,  on 
its  southern  confines,  where  the  triumphant  exhibi- 
tion on  the  walls  of  the  spoils  of  some  of  their  precur- 
sors who  had  been  slain  in  an  affray  with  the  inhabit- 
ants, roused  them  to  a  furious  vengeance.  The  ram- 
parts of  the  city  were  scaled ;  thousands  of  its  people 
were  slaughtered,  and  for  several  days  the  survivors 
were  exposed  to  all  the  horrors  of  violation  and 
rapine.  The  approach  of  Carloman  with  a  large 
army  to  punish  their  perfidious  ingratitude,  accele- 
rated the  departure  of  the  crusaders ;  and  their  hasty 
and  disorderly  passage  of  the  Save  exposed  them  to  a 
heavy  loss  from  the  attacks  of  the  savage  hordes,  who 
awaited  their  landing  on  the  Bulgarian  bank  of  that 


*Fulcher,  p.  384.     Albert.  Aquensis,  p.  185,     GuiUrt,  p  432 
Willermus  Tyr.  p.  642. 


CRUSADES  BY  THE  PEOPLE.         59 

river.  Though  they  finally  repelled  these  new  ene- 
mies, they  found- Bulgaria  a  wasted  solitude.  The 
natives  had  retreated  to  their  fastnesses  and  strong- 
holds ;  the  fortified  towns  were  closed  against  them ; 
and  the  purchase  of  provisions  for  their  march,  under 
the  walls  of  these  places,  was  the  only  intercourse 
which  the  imperial  officers  would  permit  the  inhabit- 
ants to  hold  with  them.  Their  excesses  again  pro- 
voked a  more  open  and  fatal  hostility.  Enraged  at 
some  outrages,  the  people  of  Nissa  pursued  and  mas- 
sacred their  rear-guard ;  the  efforts  of  Peter  could  not 
dissuade  the  whole  host  from  returning  to  avenge  this 
quarrel ;  and,  in  an  ineffectual  attempt  to  renew  the 
same  scenes  as  at  Zemlin,  the  assailants  were  repulsed 
from  the  walls  with  immense  slaughter.  The  triumph- 
ant garrison  and  inhabitants  issued  forth  upon  them ; 
a  general  and  total  rout  ensued ;  and,  in  the  onset,  the 
sally,  and  the  pursuit,  above  ten  thousand  of  the  cru- 
Baders  perished.  Their  camp  was  abandoned  and  plun- 
dered ;  and  despoiled  of  their  baggage,  of  their  money, 
and  of  their  arms,  the  wretched  herd  of  fugitives 
continued  its  journey  toward  Constantinople.* 

When  they  had  ceased  to  be  fonnidable,  their 
helpless  misery  extorted  some  compassion;  Alexius 
interposed  his  protection,  and  their  remains  at  length 
reached  his  capital,  where  they  were  reunited  to  Wal- 

*  Albert.  Aquensis,  p.  186-188.  Guibert,  p.  484.  Willennus 
Tyr.  p.  643-645.  Peter  and  his  horde  of  banditti  reached  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Constantinople  in  August,  1096. 


60  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

ter  and  the  survivors  of  the  first  division.  But  they 
were  no  sooner  refreshed,  than  they  repaid  their  hos- 
pitable benefactor  by  new  acts  of  insolence,  licentious- 
ness, and  pillage ;  and  Alexius  gladly  acceded  to  their 
desire  to  be  transported  across  the  Bosphorus.  Under 
the  conduct  of  Peter  and  his  lieutenant  Walter,  they 
were  landed  in  Asia  Minor;  but  here,  neither  the 
exhortations  of  the  Hermit  could  restrain  their  out- 
rages against  the  religion  and  property  of  the  subjects 
of  Alexius,  nor  the  advice  of  the  emperor  himself  to 
await  the  arrival  of  the  more  disciplined  chivalry  of 
Europe,  prevent  their  headlong  advance.  Peter,  find- 
ing himself  totally  unable  to  control  them,  used  a 
decent  pretext  for  escaping  back  to  Constantinople; 
out  Walter,  whose  more  martial  spirit  was  really  asso- 
ciated with  qualities  for  command  deserving  of  a  bet- 
ter fate,  was  compelled  to  yield  to  their  clamorous 
demand  to  be  led  against  the  infidels.  Despite  of  his 
prudential  warnings,  they  divided  their  forces  to  plun- 
der the  Turkish  provinces,  and  reunited  only  on  a 
report  artfully  circulated  by  the  Sultan  of  Roum,  that 
Nice,  his  capital,  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  an  ad- 
vanced body  of  their  associates.  Allured  by  the  pros- 
pect of  sharing  in  its  spoils,  they  blindly  rushed  into 
the  heart  of  a  hostile  country;  but  when  they  de- 
scended into  the  plain  of  Nice,  instead  of  being  wel- 
comed by  the  sight  of  the  Christian  banners  on  its 
walls,  they  found  themselves  surrounded  by  the  Turk- 
ish cavalry.  In  the  first  onset,  Walter  fell  bravely, 


CRUSADE    BY    THE    PEOPLE.  61 

covered  with  wounds,  while  vainly  discharging,  by 
intelligence  and  example,  the  twofold  duties  of  the 
leader  and  the  warrior.  The  disorderly  multitude  of 
his  followers  was  immediately  overwhelmed  and  slaugh- 
tered ;  a  remnant,  no  more  than  three  thousand, 
escaped  the  general  destruction  by  flight  to  the  near- 
est Byzantine  fortress ;  and  a  huge  mound,  into  which 
the  savage  victors  piled  the  bones  of  the  slain,  formed 
an  ominous  monument  of  disaster  for  succeeding  hosts 
of  crusaders.* 

The  disorders  and  destruction  of  these  first  two 
divisions  of  the  crusading  rabble  were,  indeed,  but  a 
prelude  to  more  atrocious  scenes  of  guilt,  and  more 
enormous  waste  of  human  life.  Stimulated  by  the 
example  of  Peter,  a  German  monk,  named  Godeschal, 
preached  the  Crusade  through  the  villages  of  his  native 
land  with  so  much  effect,  that  he  allured  about  fifteen 
thousand  of  the  peasantry  to  follow  him  to  the  East. 
This  third  division  took  the  same  route  as  the  two 
preceding ;  but,  on  their  arrival  in  Hungary,  they  ex- 
perienced a  far  different  reception  from  its  sovereign, 
who  was  justly  exasperated  at  the  outrages  with 
which  his  hospitality  had  been  repaid.  At  first  he 
prudently  supplied  them  with  the  means  of  accele- 
rating their  passage  through  his  kingdom ;  but  their 
march  was  attended  with  an  aggravated  repetition  of 

*  Albert,  p.  189-193.  Baldricus  Archiepiscopus,  p.  89.  Gui- 
bert,  p.  485.  Willcrmus  Tyr.  p.  645-647.  Anna  Comnena, 
p.  226,  227 


62  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

the  worst  crimes  which  had  been  perpetrated  by  the 
followers  of  the  Hermit;  the  whole  population  of 
Hungary  rose  in  arms  against  them,  and  Carloman 
was  at  length  provoked  to  deliver  them  over  to  the 
vengeance  of  his  subjects.  For  this  purpose  he  had 
recourse  to  a  cruel  act  of  perfidy,  which  deeply  sul- 
lied the  merit  of  his  earlier  forbearance.  Before  the 
walls  of  Belgrade,  his  promise  of  forgiveness  and  pro- 
tection induced  them  to  lay  down  their  arms;  and 
this  act  of  submission  was  immediately  followed  by 
their  ruthless  massacre.* 

But  the  numbers,  the  gross  superstition,  the  licen- 
tious wickedness,  and  the  miserable  extirpation  of 
these  fanatical  hordes,  all  sink  into  insignificance 
before  the  features  displayed  in  the  composition  and 
conduct  of  the  fourth  and  last  division  of  the  rabble 
of  Europe.  From  France,  from  the  Rhenish  Pro- 
vinces and  Flanders,  and  from  the  British  Islands, 
there  gathered  on  the  eastern  confines  of  Germany 
one  huge  mass  of  the  vile  refuse  of  all  these  nations, 
amounting  to  no  less  than  two  hundred  thousand  per- 
sons. Some  bands  of  nobles,  with  their  mounted  fol- 
lowers, were  not  ashamed  to  accompany  their  march, 
and  share  their  prey ;  but  their  leaders  are  undistin- 
guishable  ;  and  the  most  authentic  contemporary 
records  of  their  proceedings  compel  us  to  repeat  the 
incredible  assertion  that  their  motions  were  guided 

*  Albert,  p.  194.     Willermus  Tyr.  p.  648. 


CRUSADE  BY  THE  PEOPLE.         63 

by  a  goat  and  a  goose,  which  were  believed  to  be  di- 
vinely inspired.  If  we  impatiently  dismiss  a  circum- 
stance so  revolting  to  every  pious  mind,  and  so  de- 
grading to  the  pride  of  human  intellect,  we  find  their 
actions  as  detestable  as  their  superstition  was  blind 
and  unholy.  The  unhappy  Jews  in  the  episcopal 
cities  of  the  Rhine  and  Moselle  were  the  first  victims 
of  their  ferocity.  Under  the  protection  of  the  eccle- 
siastical lords  of  these  commercial  places,  colonies  of 
that  outcast  race  had  long  enjoyed  toleration  and 
accumulated  wealth.  Their  riches  tempted  the  cu- 
pidity of  fanatics,  who  professed  a  zeal  for  the  pure 
religion  of  the  gospel,  only  that  they  might  violate  its 
most  sacred  precepts  of  mercy  and  love.  Under  the 
pretence  of  commencing  their  holy  war  by  extir- 
pating the  enemies  of  God  in  Europe,  they  sought 
the  blood  and  spoils  of  a  helpless  and  unoffending 
people.  To  the  honour  of  the  Romish  Church,  the 
Bishops  of  Mayence,  Spires,  and  other  cities,  courage- 
ously endeavoured  to  shield  the  Jews  from  their  fury 
and  rapine ;  but  their  humane  efforts  were  only  par- 
tially successful,  and  thousands  were  either  barbar- 
ously massacred,  or,  to  escape  the  outrages  and  dis- 
appoint the  cupidity  of  their  enemies,  cast  themselves, 
their  women  and  children,  and  their  precious  effects*, 
into  the  waters  or  the  flames.  Sated  with  murder 
and  spoliation,  the  ruffian  host  pursued  its  march  from 
the  Rhine  to  the  Danube ;  and  the  continued  in- 
dulgence of  its  brutal  sensuality  attested  that  it 


64  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

needed  not  the  impulse  of  fanaticism  for  the  commis- 
sion of  every  atrocity.  But  it  was  at  length  over- 
taken by  the  vengeance  of  God  and  man.  In  the 
hour  of  danger,  the  unruly  and  wicked  multitude 
proved  as  dastardly  against  an  armed  enemy  as  it  had 
been  ferocious  toward  the  defenceless  Jews.  It  ef- 
fected the  passages  of  the  Danube  only  to  encounter 
a  tremendous  defeat  from  the  Hungarian  army  which 
had  collected  for  the  national  defence ;  some  sudden 
and  inexplicable  panic  produced  a  general  flight,  and 
unresisted  slaughter;  and  so  dreadful  was  the  carnage, 
that  the  course  of  the  Danube  was  choked  with  the 
bodies,  and  its*  waters  dyed  with  the  blood  of  the 
slain.  The  contemporary  chronicler,  who  was  appa- 
rently best  informed  of  their  execrable  crimes  and 
well-merited  fate,  asserts  that  very  few  of  the  im- 
mense crusading  multitude  escaped  death  from  the 
swords  of  the  Hungarians  or  the  rapid  current  of  the 
river;  and  it  is  certain  that,  whatever  remnant  sur: 
vived,  saved  their  lives- only  by  flight  and  dispersion.* 

*  Albert.  Aqueusis,  p.  195,  196.     Fulcber.  p.  386.     Willennua 
Tyr.  p.  649,  650. 


CRUSADE  BY  KINGS  AND  NOBLES.     65 


SECTION  IV. 

THE  CRUSADE  UNDERTAKEN  BY  KINGS  AND  NOBLES. 

BEFORE  twelve  months  had  expired  since  the  spirit 
of  crusading  was  roused  into  action  by  the  Council  of 
Clermont,  and  before  a  single  advantage  had  been 
gained  over  the  infidels,  the  fanatical  enthusiasm  of 
Europe  had  already  cost  the  lives,  at  the  lowest  com- 
putation, of  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  of  its 
people.*  But  such  were  the  stupid  ignorance  and 
headlong  folly  which  misguided  these  wretched  multi- 
tudes, and  still  more,  so  dark  and  grovelling  was  their 
superstition,  so  cruel  and  demoniacal  their  fanaticism, 
and  so  flagitious  their  licentiousness,  that  all  pity  for 
their  fate  is  lost  in  the  disgust  and  horror  with  whicii 
we  recoil  from  the  contemplation  of  brutality  and 


*  Mills,  History  of  the  Crusades,  vol.  i.  p.  81. 
6 


66  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

guilt.  The  picture  is  relieved  by  no  exhibition  ol 
dignified  purpose  or  heroic  achievement;  the  myriads 
who  had  perished  in  Hungary,  in  Bulgaria,  and  m 
Asia  Minor,  were  animated  by  none  of  the  loftier  sen- 
timents of  the  age ;  they  were  composed  chiefly  of  the 
coarser  rabble  of  every  country;  and  in  their  de- 
struction we  behold  only  the  offscouring  of  the  popu- 
lar ferment  of  Europe.  But,  while  the  first  disasters 
of  the  Crusade  were  sweeping  this  mass  of  corruption 
from  the  surface  of  society,  the  genuine  spirit  of  reli- 
gious and  martial  enthusiasm  was  more  slowly  and 
powerfully  evolved.  With  maturer  preparation,  and 
with  steadier  resolve  than  the  half-armed  and  irregu- 
lar rabble,  the  mailed  and  organized  chivalry  of  Eu- 
rope was  arraying  itself  for  the  mighty  contest ;  and 
a  far  different,  a  splendid  and  interesting  spectacle, 
opens  to  our  view.  In  the  characters,  the  motives, 
and  the  conduct  of  the  princely  and  noble  leaders 
who  achieved  the  design  of  the  first  Crusade,  we  are 
no  longer  presented  with  the  revolting  sameness  of  a 
mere  brutal  ferocity.  Their  zeal,  although  mingled 
with  superstition,  and  not  unstained  by  cruelty,  was 
also  elevated  by  the  generous  pursuit  of  martial  fame, 
their  resolves  were  inspired  by  the  twofold  incentive 
of  spiritual  duty  and  temporal  honour ;  and  their  fa- 
naticism was  regulated  by  foresight  and  prudence.  In 
entering  on  their  purpose,  they  had,  indeed,  been  more 
or  less  infected  with  the  general  madness  of  the  age ; 
but,  in  the  guidance  of  the  holy  war,  many  of  them 


CRUSADE  BY  KINGS  AND  NOBLES.     67 

proved  themselves  as  politic  in  counsel,  as  skilful  ip 
expedients,  and  as  patient  and  constant  under  difficul- 
ties, as  they  were  adventurous  in  danger  and  courage- 
ous in  combat.  The  wildness  of  their  enterprise  is 
condemned  by  our  calmer  reason ;  the  justice  of  their 
cause  may  be  impeached  on  every  true  principle  of 
divine  and  human  law ;  but,  from  the  magnanimous 
devotion  of  their  spirit,  and  the  fearless  heroism  of 
their  exploits,  it  is  impossible  to  withhold  our  sym- 
pathy and  admiration. 

It  has  been  deemed  worthy  of  remark,  that  none  of 
the  principal  sovereigns  of  Europe  engaged  in  the  first 
Crusade;  but  their  absence  was  determined  by  the 
accidents  of  individual  character  and  position.  Pope 
Urban  II.  declined  the  personal  command  of  the  ex- 
pedition, on  the  plea  of  his  engrossing  functions  in  the 
general  government  of  the  church,  and  his  duty  of  re- 
pressing the  schism  created  by  the  Antipope  Clement; 
or,  perhaps,  on  the  more  reasonable  excuse  of  his  age 
and  infirmities;*  but  he  deputed  his  spiritual  autho- 
rity to  his  legate  Adhemar,  the  Bishop  of  Puy.  The 
Einperor  Henry  IV.,  the  personal  enemy  of  Urban, 
and  protector  of  the  antipope,  of  course  refused  tc 
recognise  the  authority  by  which  the  Crusade  was 
preached.  Philip  I.  of  France  was  absorbed  in  sen- 
sual indulgence ;  and  to  renew  the  excommunication 


*  Bitti  Sacri  Hist,  (by  an  anonymous  chronicler,  in  Mabillon,  Mn*. 
Ital.  vol.  i.)  p.  135. 


68 


THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 


Henry  IV. 

already  passed  upon  him  was  one  of  the  acts  of  Urban 
at  the  very  Council  of  Clermont.  The  crafty  and 
irreligious  character  of  William  II.  of  England  (Rufus) 
also  led  him  rather  to  minister  to  his  brother's  reck- 
less enthusiasm,  by  purchasing  the  mortgage  of  Duke 
Robert's  Norman  dominions,  than  to  join  himself  in 
the  holy  war.  But  the  cause  rejected  by  these 
monarchs  was  eagerly  embraced  by  the  most  dis- 
tinguished feudal  princes  of  the  second  order :  by 
Godfrey  of  Bouillou,  Duke  of  the  Lower  Lorraine  or 
Brabant,  with  his  two  brothers,  Eustace  and  Baldwin, 
and  a  kinsman  also  of  the  latter  name;  Hugh,  styled 
the  Great  Count  of  Yermandois,  and  Robert,  Duke  of 
Normandy,  brothers  of  the  French  and  English  kings; 
Robert,  Stephen,  and  Raymond,  Counts  of  Flanders, 


CRUSADE    BF    KINGS    AND    NOBLES.  69 


Godfrey  of  Bouillon. 

Chartres,  and  Thoulouse;  and  the  Norman  Boemond, 
son  of  the  Guiscard,  Prince  of  Tarento,  with  his 
cousin  Tancred,  whom  history  and  romance  have 
equally  delighted  to  exhibit  as  the  brightest  examplar 
of  knightly  virtue. 

In  dignity  and  character,  however,  in  the  conduct 
and  the  results  of  the  Crusade,  the  highest  place  of 
honour  must  be  conceded  to  the  Duke  of  Brabant. 
Godfrey  of  Bouillon  was  descended  through  females 
from  Charlemagne;  and  ranked,  alike  by  his  great 
possessions  and  personal  qualities,  among  the  most 
powerful  feudatories  of  the  German  Empire.  His 
reputation  for  wisdom  in  counsel  and  prowess  in  arms 
was  deservedly  high ;  and,  during  the  war  between 
the  empire  and  papacy,  in  which  he  adhered  to  Henry 
IV.,  he  had  specially  distinguished  himself,  both  at 


70  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

the  battle  of  Merseburg  and  at  the  siege  of  Rome. 
His  political  importance  was  increased  by  the  position 
of  his  states  on  the  frontiers  of  France  and  Germany ; 
and  his  consequent  familiarity  with  the  popular 
dialects  of  both  countries,  as  well  as  his  acquisition 
of  the  Latin,  the  customary  language  of  the  church, 
facilitated  his  intercourse,  and  promoted  his  personal 
influence,  among  the  nations  of  Europe.  But  the 
severe  integrity  of  his  character  disdained  the  selfish 
exercise  of  these  advantages;  and,  amid  the  gross 
and  violent  disorders  of  the  times,  his  life  was  regu- 
lated by  the  strictest  principles  of  morality  and  re- 
ligion. His  manners  were  gentle,  pure,  and  benig- 
nant; his  conduct  was  just  and  disinterested;  and 
his  piety,  though  mistaken,  was  sincere  and  fervent. 
These  virtues  might  have  qualified  him  rather  for  the 
cloister  than  the  camp,  if  they  had  not  been  asso- 
ciated with  energies  capable  of  the  loftiest  designs : 
with  a  head  to  conceive  and  a  hand  to  execute  the 
most  arduous  enterprises  which  his  conscience  ap- 
proved; with  resolution,  tempered  by  reflection  and 
judgment,  which  no  difficulties  could  shake;  and 
with  valour,  calmed  only  by  moderation,  which  no 
perils  could  deter.  Since  the  siege  of  Rome  his  frame 
had  been  consumed  by  a  slow  fever;  his  illness  dic- 
tated the  renewal  of  an  early  purpose  of  performing 
the  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem :  and  he  no  sooner  heard 
of  the  projected  Crusade,  than,  as  if  inspired  with  new 
life,  he  suddenly  shook  off  disease  from  his  limbs,  and 


CRUSADE    BY    KINGS    AND    NOBLES.  71 


Siege  of  Rome. 


sprang  with  renovated  health  and  youth  from  a  sick- 
couch    to   engage   in   so  glorious   and   meritorious  a 

work.* 

The    transcendent/    merits    and    accomplishments 
which  adorned  the  principal  hero  of  the  first  Crusade 
have  demanded  an  especial  portraiture :  the  few  fea- 
tures  in   the    characters  of    the   remaining   leaders, 
which  varied  their  general  resemblance  in  devout  zeal 
and  warlike  excellence,  may  be  more  briefly  sketched. 
In  Hugh  of  France  these  qualities,  though  supported 
by  other  attributes  not  unworthy  of  his  royal  birth, 
were  destitute  of  the  religious  humility  and  modesi 
demeanour  of  Godfrey;  and  the  great  Count  of  Ve 

*  Malmsbury,  p  44*.     Ouibert,  p.  485.     Willermus  Tyr.  p.  651 


72 


THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 


Robert  of  Normandy  and  his  Father, 

mandois  was  remarkable  chiefly  for  an  arrogant  and 
haughty  deportment.f  Robert  of  Normandy  was 
generous  and  merciful,  eloquent  in  debate,  and  well 
skilled  in  military  expedients;  but  profuse  in  ex- 
pense, dissolute  in  morals,  and  equally  rash  and 
unsteady  in  resolve.  His  rashness  and  insubordi- 
nation had  nearly  made  him  a  parricide,  as  he  had 
unhorsed  his  own  father,  William  the  Conqueror,  in 
battle,  and  had  only  been  prevented  from  putting  him 
to  death,  by  his  father's  exclaiming  and  making  him- 
self known.  Although,  therefore,  his  conduct  during 

f  Anna  Comnena,  p.  227      Robertas  Monachus,  p.  34.     Guibert, 
p.  485. 


CRUSADE    BY    KINGS    AND    NOBLES.  73 

the  Crusade  was  thought  in  some  measure  to  atone 
for  the  irregularities  of  his  earlier  life,  arid  his  ex- 
ploits often  attracted  the  general  admiration,  his 
instability  of  mind  prevented  his  maintaining  the 
respect  of  his  more  illustrious  compeers.*  His  name- 
sake of  Flanders  resembled  him  in  headlong  .valour, 
without  sharing  any  portion  even  of  his  abortive 
talents.  The  Count  of  Chartres,  one  of  the  wealthiest 
and  most  potent  feudal  princes  of  France,  was  also 
deemed  the  most  learned  in  all  the  literate  and  prac? 
tical  knowledge  of  the  age,  experienced  and  wise  in 
his  suggestions,  clear  and  persuasive  in  discourse. 
These  intellectual  acquirements  peculiarly  fitted  him 
for  directing  the  general  design  of  the  war;  and  he 
was  accordingly  chosen  to  preside  in  the  council  of  its 
leaders.  In  the  field,  the  superiority  of  his  tactical 
skill  was  equally  recognised;  but  he  was  deficient  in 
vigorous  enterprise;  and  in  the  eyes  of  the  fiery 
champions  of  the  Cross,  his  fame  was  tainted  by  the 
questionable  quality  of  his  valour. 

The  veteran  and  sagacious  Count  of  Thoulouse,f 
whose  youth  had  been  habitually  exercised  in  arms 

*  A  well-known  instance  of  Robert's  careless  spirit  was  the  above- 
mentioned  mortgage  of  his  duchy  to  his  brother  William  for  five 
years,  at  the  inadequate  price  of  ten  thousand  marks,  to  equip  him- 
self for  the  Crusade.  Chron.  Sax.  p.  204.  Will.  Gcmeticensis, 
p.  673. 

•{•  The  history  of  this  prince  is  very  obscure.  His  original  title 
was  Count  of  St.  Gilles  in  Languedoc ;  whence  Anna  Comnena  cor- 
rupted his  name  into  Sangeles,  and  under  that  appellation  exagge- 


74  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

against  his  Saracen  neighbours  in  Spain,  had  brought 
from  that  warfare  a  deadly  hatred  of  the  Mussulman 
name,  and  was  more  fiercely  animated  than  the  other 
crusading  princes  by  the  spirit  of  religious  intolerance. 
His  master  passion  was  umitigated  fanaticism;  and 
the  devotion  of  his  old  age,  the  abandonment  of  his 
extensive  dominions,  and  the  appropriation  of  his 
great  riches  to  the  service  of  the  Crusade,  might  have 
protected  his  motives  from  the  suspicion  of  worldly 
ambition  and  avarice,  if  their  sincerity  had  not  been 
attended  by  a  cold  and  selfish  nature,  a  proud  and 
vindictive  temper,  which  denied  him  the  friendship  of 
his  noble  confederates,  and  alienated  the  affections  of 
his  own  native  followers.  To  the  purely  fanatical 
zeal  which  predominated  in  the  character  of  the  Pro- 
ven£al  prince,  may  be  opposed  the  unscrupulous  am- 
bition and  deep  hypocrisy  of  the  Norman  Boemond, 
the  Ulysses  of  the  war.  To  him  alone,  perhaps,  of 
all  the  movers  and  warriors  of  the  Crusade,  may  be 
attributed  a  systematic  design  of  rendering  the  popu- 
lar enthusiasm  of  Europe  subservient  to  views  of  mere 
personal  interest.  If  his  versatile  and  unprincipled 
genius  enabled  him  to  feel  or  to  feign*  some  share  in 

rates  his  rank,  as  if  he  had  been  the  principal  personage  of  the  Cru- 
sade. In  what  manner  he  had  acquired  the  extensive  fiefs  of  Thou- 
.ouse  and  Provence,  and  arrogated  the  title  of  Duke  of  Narbonne, 
which  he  also  bore,  seems  undetermined.  L'Art  de  Verifier  lea 
Dates,  vol.  ii.  p.  289-294,  &c. 

*  Boemond  pretended  to  receive  with  surprise  and  admiration  the 
news  of  the  design  of  Urban,  which  it  is  more  than  probable  that  ha 


CRUSADES    BY    KINGS    AND    PEOPLE.          75 

the  prevalent  sentiment  of  his  time,  the  whole  re- 
corded tenor  of  his  conduct  betrays  the  settled  and 
absorbing  pursuit  of  temporal  aggrandizement.  Fa- 
miliar with  all  the  arts  of  dissimulation,  and  no  less 
rapacious  than  perfidious,  he  exhibits,  among  the 
heroes  of  the  holy  war,  the  singular  spectacle  of  a 
cool  and  crafty  politician.  His  vices  were  odiously 
contrasted  with  the  generous  qualities  of  his  youthful 
cousin  Tancred,*  whose  frank  and  courteous  bearing, 
no  less  than  his  love  of  glory  and  high-minded  disdain 
of  wrong  and  perfidy,  rendered  him  the  mirror  of 
European  chivalry  .f 


had  secretly  prompted.  At  the  siege  of  Amalfi,  he  embraced  the 
Crusade  in  an  apparent  transport  of  zeal :  excited  the  faqatical 
ardour  of  his  confederates  and  followers  by  an  eloquent  harangue; 
and,  while  their  enthusiasm  was  at  its  height,  rent  his  own  robe  into 
pieces  in  the  shape  of  crosses  for  the  soldiery.  This  curious  and 
characteristic  anecdote  is  told  by  Guibert,  p.  485. 

*  Tancred  was  the  son  of  Matilda,  sister  of  Robert  the  Guiscard, 
and  therefore  the  cousin  of  Boemond,  (Radulphus  Cadomensis,  de 
Gestis  Tancredi,  c.  1,)  and  not  either  his  brother  or  nephew,  as  some 
of  the  writers  in  the  Gesta  Dei,  less  correctly  informed  than  the 
biographer  of  the  hero,  and  Gibbon  and  Muratori  after  them  sup- 
posed. The  father  of  Tancred  was  an  Italian  marquess,  Odo.  Ralph 
of  Caen  was  the  personal  friend  and  companion  of  Tancred  in  Pales- 
tine after  the  Crusade. 

f  "  0  piu  bel  di  maniere  e  di  sembianti 
0  piu  eccelso  ed  intrepido  di  core/'^&c. 

La  Gerusal.  Liberata.  can.  i.  45. 

But  the  poet  has  here  only  echoed  the  praises  which  the  qualities 
of  Tancred  extorted  even  from  the  Greek  princes,  never  unwilling  to 
detract  from  the  virtues  of  a  Latin,  above  all  a  Norman  name. — Anna 
Comnena,  p.  277. 


76  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

Such  were  the  leaders  under  whom  the  warlike 
array  of  the  Western  nations  was  marshalled  for  the 
First  Crusade.  Their  confederate  powers  were  col- 
lected, according  to  the  local  convenience  or  pre- 
ference of  the  chieftains,  into  four  great  divisions. 
The  first  body,  composed  of  the  nobility  of  the 
Rhenish  provinces  and  the  more  northern  parts  of 
Germany,  ranged  themselves  under  the  standard  of 
Godfrey  of  Bouillon.  That  prince  was  accompanied 
by  the  two  Baldwins,  and  many  other  powerful 
feudal  lords,  whose  forces  numbered  no  less  than  ten 
thousand  cavalry  and  eighty  thousand  foot.  In  the 
second  division,  under  the  Counts  of  Vermandois  and 
Chartres,  the  two  Roberts,  and  Eustace,  Count  of 
Boulogne,  (brother  of  Godfrey,)  were  assembled  the 
chivalry  of  Central  and  Northern  France,  the  British 
Isles,  Normandy,  and  Flanders  ;*  and  their  formidable 
muster  can  be  estimated  only  loosely  from  the  asser- 
tion of  a  contemporary,  ^that  the  number  of  lesser 
barons  alone  exceeded  that  of  the  Grecian  warriors  at 
the  siege  of  Troy.f  The  third  host,  in  the  order  of 
departure,  was  composed  of  Southern  Italians  under 
Boemond  and  Tancred,  and  formed  an  array  of  ten 
thousand  horse  and  twenty  thousand  foot.  The  last 

*  For  "  neither  surely,"  says  old  Fuller,  "  did  the  Irishmen's  feet 
stick  in  their  bogs."  (Hist,  of  Holy  War,  lib.  i.  c.  13.)  So  also 
Bings  Tasso : 

"  Questi  dall'  alte  selve  irsuti  manda 

La  divisa  dal  mondo  ultima  Irlanda." 
f  Guibert,  j   48. 


CRUSADE    BY    KINGS    AND    NOBLES.  7? 

division,  which  assembled  under  the  Count  of  Thou- 
louse  in  the  South  of  France,  was  originally  formed 
chiefly  of  his  own  vassals  and  native  confederates  of 
Languedoc,  Gascony,  and  Aries,  comprehended  under 
the  general  appellation  of  Proven9als;*  with  a  small 
admixture  of  the  Christian  knighthood  of  the  Pyre- 

CJ  *  •/ 

nean  regions  of  Spain:  but  in  his  route  through 
Lombardy,  his  army  was  swollen  by  so  great  num- 
bers of  Northern  Italians,  that  the  combined  host 
which  marched  under  his  banners  amounted  to  one 
hundred  thousand  persons  of  all  arms  and  conditions. 
Besides  several  feudal  chieftains  of  distinction,  Ray- 
mond was  accompanied  by  three  prelates  of  high 
rank :  the  papal  Legate  Adhemar  of  Puy,  the  Arch, 
bishop  of  Toledo,  and  the  Bishop  of  Orange.f 

Of  all  the  principal  leaders  of  the  Crusade,  the 
preparations  of  Godfrey  of  Bouillon  were  earliest 
completed ;  and  his  march  from  the  banks  of  the 
Moselle  was  conducted  with  admirable  prudence  and 
order  by  the  same  route  which  had  proved  so  disas- 
trous to  the  preceding  rabble.  When  he  reached  the 
northern  frontiers  of  Hungary,  he  demanded  of  its 
king  by  his  envoys  an  explanation  of  the  circum- 
stances which  had  provoked  their  destruction.  The 
reply  of  Carloman  exposed  the  crimes  by  which  the 
vengeance  of  his  people  had  been  roused ;  and  his 
just  and  amicable  representations  compelled  the  up- 

*  Raymond  des  Agiles,  p.  144.  |  Willermus  Tyr.  p.  660. 


78  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

right  judgment  of  Godfrey  to  admit  that  the  wicked 
ness  of  the  crusading  mob  had  merited  its  fate.  He 
accepted  a  friendly  invitation  from  the  Hungarian 
king;  treated  with  him  for  a  safe  passage  through  his 
dominions  with  supplies  of  provisions  on  equitable 
terms;  and  left  his  own  brother  Baldwin  and  his 
family  as  hostages  for  the  good  faith  and  forbearance 
which  he  enforced  on  all  his  followers.  The  noble 
sincerity  of  Godfrey  won  the  confidence  of  the  Hunga- 
rian monarch,  and  disarmed  the  suspicion  and  hos- 
tility of  his  people.  Carloman  himself  attended  the 
movements  of  the  crusaders  with  a  numerous  cavalry, 
both  to  observe  their  behaviour  and  to  protect  their 
march ;  the  whole  of  his  kingdom  was  traversed 
without  a  single  act  of  offence  on  either  side;  and, 
when  the  Latin  host  had  passed  its  southern  confines, 
the  hostages  were  courteously  dismissed  with  a 
friendly  adieu.  When  the  crusaders  entered  the 
Byzantine  provinces,  their  virtuous  and  able  leader 
etill  succeeded  in  maintaining  the  same  strict  disci- 
pline ;  the  Emperor  Alexius  assisted  and  rewarded 
his  efforts  by  liberally  supplying  the  wants  of  his 
army  in  its  toilsome  passage  through  the  desolate 
forests  of  Bulgaria ;  and  the  first  division  of  the  Eu- 
ropean chivalry  peaceably  accomplished  its  entrance 
into  the  fertile  plains  of  Thrace.* 

*  Albert,  p.  198,  199.     Willermus  Tyr.  p.  652 


CRUSADERS    AT    CONSTANTINOPLE. 


79 


SECTION  V. 

THE   FIRST  CRUSADERS  AT   CONSTANTINOPLE. 

UT  for  the  friendly  succour  of 
the  Byzantine  monarch,  it  is 
acknowledged  that  the  host  of 
Godfrey  must  have  perished  in 
their  route  through  provinces 
imperfectly  cultivated,  and  al- 
ready exhausted  by  the  feuds 
of  their  barbarous  natives.  The 
alacrity  with  which  Alexius  at 
first  facilitated  the  approach  of 
his  Latin  allies,  was  succeeded 
by  indications  of  a  more  du- 


80  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

bious  policy;  and,  in  the  report  of  their  chroniclers, 
the  conduct  of  the  emperor  is  branded  with  the  re- 
proach of  deliberate  perfidy  and  systematic  hostility. 
In  weighing  the  justice  of  these  charges,  some  reduc- 
tion from  their  truth  must  be  made  for  the  bigoted 
prejudice  of  the  Latins  against  a  schismatic  monarch 
and  nation;  and  a  still  larger  share  of  extenuation 
for  the  suspicious  conduct  of  the  emperor  may  be 
claimed  for  the  difficulties  and  peril  of  his  position. 
Instead  of  the  reasonable  aid  which  he  had  solicited 
from  the  pope  and  the  temporal  sovereigns  of  the 
West,  he  found  his  dominions  overwhelmed,  and  his 
throne  shaken  from  its  foundations,  by  the  deluge 
of  European  fanaticism.  His  hospitable  reception  of 
the  first  disorderly  masses  of  pilgrims  had  been  re- 
quited by  the  ravage  of  his  territories  and  the  spolia- 
tion of  his  subjects :  the  very  numbers  and  formida- 
ble array  of  the  better-disciplined  chivalry  of  Europe 
might  alone  have  justified  a  prudent  apprehension  of 
their  power  and  disposition,  which  their  fierce  prompti- 
tude in  resenting  was  by  no  means  calculated  to  allay. 
Of  the  personal  characters  and  real  designs  of  most 
of  their  leaders  he  was  utterly  ignorant ;  and  their 
alliance  in  the  same  enterprise  with  his  ancient  and 
dangerous  enemy,  Boemond,  was  at  least  an  ominous 
conjuncture.  The  plea  of  delivering  the  Holy  Sepul- 
chre from  the  hands  of  the  Turks,  might  easily  cover 
a  design  of  subjugating  the  whole  Eastern  world  to 
the  spiritual  dominion  of  the  Latin  Church ;  the  same 


CRUSADERS  AT  CONSTANTINOPLE.     81 

pretext  of  fanatical  zeal  might  be  readily  employed 
against  the  infidel  Mohammedans  and  heretical 
Greeks;  and  to  the  confident  valour  and  the  en- 
vious cupidity  of  the  Western  warriors,  thus  ani- 
mated by  religious  hatred  and  temporal  ambition,  the 
rich  spoils  of  Constantinople*  and  its  provinces  might 
offer  a  more  accessible  and  tempting  prey  than  the 
distant  relief  of  Jerusalem  and  plunder  of  Syria. 
Moreover,  the  recent  distraction  and  rapid  decay  of 
the  Seljukian  power  had  terminated  the  alarm  with 
which  Alexius  formerly  anticipated  the  entire  ruin  of 
his  empire ;  and  the  subsiding  of  the  Turkish  ener- 
gies had  removed  the  immediate  danger  which -in- 
duced him  to  implore  the  approach,  and  might  have 


*  Of  the  astonishment  and  envy  with  which  the  splendour  of  Con- 
stantinople struck  the  rude  Latins,  we  may  form  a  lively  idea  from 
the  burst  of  admiration  which  the  remembrance  of  its  magnificence 
recalls  to  the  mind  of  one  of  their  chroniclers,  the  chaplain  and 
companion  of  the  Count  of  Chartres :  "0  quanta  civitas  nobilia  et 
decora  !  quot  monasteria  quotque  palatia  in  eft,  opere  miro  fabrefacta ! 
quot  etiam  plateis  vel  in  vicis  opera,  ad  spectandum  mirabilia !  Tae- 
dium  est  quidem  magnum  recitare  quanta  sit  ibi  opulentia  bonorum 
omnium,  auri  et  argenti,"  &c.  Fulcherius,  p.  386. — (Oh  !  what  a 
fine  and  noble  city  is  this !  How  many  palaces  and  monasteries, 
constructed  with  admirable  skill,  it  contains  !  how  many  works  of 
art,  wonderful  to  behold,  are  to  be  found  in  its  streets  and  shops ! 
It  would  be,  indeed,  a  tedious  matter  to  tell  how  great  is  its  riches 
in  all  kinds  of  goods,  of  both  gold  and  silver.)  The  emotions  ex- 
cited by  the  contemplation  of  such  wealth,  however  innocent  in  the 
breast  of  the  good  chaplain,  were  likely  to  prompt  dangerous  wishes 
and  designs  to  the  bold  and  unscrupulous  imaginations  of  fierce  and 
rapacious  warriors. 


82  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

reconciled  him  to  the  presence  of  auxiliaries,  in  Greek 
estimation  scarcely  more  civilized,  and  only  less  to  be 
dreaded,  than  the  Mohammedan  enemy. 

Under  these  critical  circumstances,  for  the  double 
purpose  of  averting  the  ruin  with  which  he  was  me- 
naced, and  of  obtaining  the  advantages  which  he  might 
yet  hope  to  extract  from  the  oppressive  aid  of  the  West- 
ern nations,  the  emperor  appears  to  have  had  recourse 
to  the  timid  and  tortuous  policy  habitual  in  the  Byzan- 
tine court.  While  he  welcomed  the  approach  of  the 
army  of  Godfrey,  his  fleets  in  the  Adriatic  were  pre- 
pared to  dispute  the  passage  of  the  French  and  Nor- 
man crusaders  from  the  Italian  to  the  Grecian  ports. 
That  second  grand  division  of  the  European  chivalry, 
led  by  Hugh  of  Vermandois,  the  two  Roberts,  and  the 
Count  of  Chartres,  had  traversed  France  and  Italy 
for  the  purpose  of  embarkation.  At  Lucca,  where 
these  chiefs,  prostrating  themselves  at  the  feet  of  the 
pope,  piously  received  his  benediction,  Urban  II.  com- 
mitted the  standard  of  St.  Peter  into  the  hands  of  the 
great  Count  of  France ;  *  and  here  the  arrogance  of 
that  prince  furnished  Alexius  with  a  first  occasion  of 
offence.  Twenty-four  knights,  in  armour  gorgeously 
inlaid  with  gold,  were  despatched  by  Hugh  to  Du- 
razzo,  with  a  haughty  intimation  to  Alexius  himself 
of  the  approach,  and  a  command  to  the  imperial  lieu- 
tenant to  make  royal  preparation  for  the  arrival  of 

*  Fulcherius,  p.  384.     Robertas  Monachus,  p.  35. 


CRUSADERS  AT  CONSTANTINOPLE.     83 

the  brrther  of  the  King  of  Kings,  and  standard-bearei 
of  the  pope.*  The  terms  of  the  letter  and  the  mes- 
sage were  resented  as  an  insult ;  and  the  Governor  of 
Durazzo,  instead  of  offering  the  desired  reception,  sta- 
tioned his  navy  to -prevent  the  egress  of  the  great 
count  and  his  followers  from  the  Italian  harbours. 
The  Duke  of  Normandy,  and  the  Counts  of  Flanders 
and  Chartres,  with  their  followers,  after  consuming 
the  autumn  in  luxurious  pleasure,  resolved  to  defer 
their  departure  from  Italy  until  the  return  of  spring ; 
but  Hugh,  regardless  alike  of  the  dangers  of  a  wintry 
passage  and  the  ambiguous  disposition  of  the  Greeks, 
impatiently  put  to  sea.  His  fleet  was  dispersed  in  a 
storm ;  his  own  vessel  was  wrecked  on  the  hostile 
shore ;  and,  in  lieu  of  the  magnificent  descent  which 
he  had  announced,  he  entered  Durazzo  as  a  suppliant, 
and  found  himself  a  captive.  He  was,  indeed,  treated 
with  outward  demonstrations  of  respect ;  but  his  per- 
son was  for  some  time  detained,  until  the  commands 
of  Alexius  were  received  for  his  removal  to  Constan- 
tinople.f 

When  the  intelligence  of  the  captivity  of  the  Count 
of  Vermandois  reached  the  camp  of  Godfrey  in 

*  Anna  Cornnena,  p.  228.  Du  Cange,  with  the  true  complacent 
vanity  of  a  Frenchman,  has  amused  himself  by  proving  (Dissert,  tut 
Joinville,  xxvii.,  and  note  ad  Alexiad.  p.  352)  that  the  title  of  King 
of  Kings  thus  arrogated  by  Hugh  for  his  brother,  was  conceded 
through  the  respect  of  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages  par  excellence 
to  the  monarchs  of  France. 

f  Anna  Comnena,  p.  228,  229. 


84  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

Thrace,  it  roused  the  violent  anger  of  the  crusaders ; 
and,  after  an  ineffectual  demand  for  his  release,  the 
Duke  of  Brabant  was  compelled  to  gratify  the  eager 
desire  which  was  felt  by  his  followers  to  punish  the 
imperial  perfidy  with  the  ravage  of  the  fine  province 
in  which  they  were  quartered.  This  severe  retalia- 
tion speedily  produced  the  submission  of  Alexius. 
He  had  already  soothed  the  captivity,  and  seduced 
the  pride  and  vanity  of  the  French  prince,  by  his 
pompous  reception  at  the  imperial  court;  and  Hugh 
was  induced  to  despatch  two  of  his  own  attendants  to 
Godfrey  with  the  assurance  that,  on  the  duke's  arrival 
at  Constantinople,  he  would  find  their  master  not  a 
captive,  but  a  guest.  This  message  produced  a  cessa- 
tion of  hostilities ;  but  the  awakened  suspicions  of  the 
crusaders  prepared  them  to  fly  to  arms  on  the  slight- 
est provocation  ;  the  Greeks  were  equally  distrustful ; 
and  the  mutual  contempt  and  hatred  of  two  races,  so 
dissimilar  in  manners  and  spirit,  inflamed  every  mis- 
understanding. On  the  near  approach  of  Godfrey  and 
his  host  to  the  Byzantine  capital,  the  refusal  of  the 
duke  and  his  fellow-chieftains  to  trust  their  persons 
unattended  with  the  imperial  walls,  provoked  Alexius 
to  forbid  all  intercourse  between  his  subjects  and  the 
crusaders.  The  Latin 'camp  was  immediately  strait- 
ened for  provisions ;  and  Godfrey  was  again  compelled 
to  indulge  the  rapine  of  his  followers,  and  the  empe- 
ror to  arrest  the  sufferings  of  his  people  by  concilia- 
tory measures.  A  third  and  more  dangerous  quarrel 


CRUSADERS  AT  CONSTANTINOPLE.     85 

was  produced  by  the  belief  of  the  crusaders  in  a  per- 
fidious design  of  the  emperor  to  blockade  and  starve 
them  in  their  camp,  which  was  enclosed  by  the  waters 
of  the  Bosphorus,  the  Black  Sea,  and  the  river  Bar- 
byses.  To  anticipate  this  suspected  treachery,  the 
troops  of  Godfrey  possessed  themselves,  by  an  impe- 
tuous attack,  of  the  bridge  of  the  Blachernae,  the  only 
outlet  and  key  of  their  communication  with  Constan- 
tinople and  the  open  country.  The  hostile  seizure  of 
this  important  post  disappointed  the  intentions  of  the 
Greeks ;  or  it  more  probably  excited  their  apprehen- 
sion against  the  ulterior  purpose  of  the  crusaders 
themselves.  The  imperial  troops  issued  from  the 
gates  of  Constantinople  to  dispute  the  passage  of  the 
bridge ;  after  a  bloody  conflict,  they  were  repulsed  and 
pursued  to  the  city ;  and  the  crusaders,  inflamed 
with  success  and  resentment,  even  attempted  a  head- 
long assault  upon  the  walls.  But  the  ramparts  of 
Constantinople  were  strong  and  lofty ;  the  Latins 
were  unprovided  with  any  battering  engines ;  and  the 
Greek  archers,  securely  directing  an  unerring  aim, 
galled  them  with  an  incessant  flight  of  arrows.  An 
indecisive  contest  was  maintained  until  the  close  of 
day;  but  at  nightfall  the  assailants,  after  setting  fire 
to  the  suburbs,  withdrew  from  the  walls.* 

To  a  state  of  hostility  so  inconclusive  in  its  objects, 


*  Albertus  Aqucnsis,  p.  200-202.     Baldricus  Arch.  p.  91. 
lermus  Tyr.  p.  653,  654.     Anna  Cornnena,  p.  232-234. 


86  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

and  injurious  to  both  parties,  a  stop  was  now  put  by 
the  meditation  of  the  Count  of  Vermandois.  If 
Alexius  had  ever  really  meditated  the  destruction  of 
the  crusaders,  experience  had  shewn  the  fruitlessness 
of  his  efforts;  and  his  desire  of  an  accommodation 
might  be  increased  by  the  approach  of  Boemond  and 
his  army.  Renouncing,  therefore,  his  earlier  designs, 
or  more  probably  only  shifting  the  jealous  expedients 
of  a  policy  which  had  prompted  him  in  self-defence  to 
restrict,  not  to  ruin  the  dreaded  power  of  the  cru- 
saders, he  proposed  to  their  chiefs,  as  a  condition  of 
his  friendship,  that  they  should  take  an  oath  of  fealty 
to  himself,  and  swear  either  to  restore  to  the  empire, 
or  to  hold  in  feudal  dependence,*  such  of  its  ancient 
provinces  as  they  might  recover  from  the  infidels. 
Upon  these  terms,  he  engaged  vigorously  to  support 
the  Crusade  with  the  imperial  forces  and  wealth ;  and 
he  had  prepared  the  way  for  their  acceptance  by 
inducing  the  brother  of  the  French  king  to  offer  an 
influential  precedent. 


*  Anna  Comnena,  p.  235.  The  very  circumstance  of  this  proposal 
being  made,  is  a  proof,  which  perhaps  deserves  more  attention  than  it 
has  usually  attracted,  that  the  idea  of  the  feudal  relation,  whensoever 
received,  was  at  this  epoch  familiar  to  the  Eastern  emperor.  It  is 
gtill  more  observahle  that  the  ceremonies  with  which  the  Latin 
princes  subsequently  took  the  oaths  of  fealty  to  Alexius  were  also 
strictly  feudal ;  and  though  their  ready  adoption  on  this  occasion  in 
the  Byzantine  court  need  not  shake  our  belief  in  the  exclusively 
barbarian  and  not  Roman  origin  and  existence  of  the  system  from 
which  they  were  borrowed,  yet  the  whole  fact  is  curious, 


CRUSADERS  AT  CONSTANTIOPLE.     87 

So  overcome  was  that  vain  and  inconsistent  prince 
by  the  blandishments  and  presents  of  Alexius,  that 
he  not  only  stooped  to  the  performance  of  the  desired 
homage  himself,  but  undertook  to  obtain  the  same 
submission  from  his  confederates.  The  proposal  was 
at  first  received  in  the  Latin  camp  with  the  indig- 
nation natural  to  the  free  and  fiery  spirit  of  high-born 
warriors,  who  spurned  the  idea  of  all  allegiance  or 
subjection  to  a  foreign  lord.  .  Godfrey  himself  re- 
proached the  baseness  of  Hugh  in  having  consented 
to  a  degradation  alike  unworthy  of  his  haughty  pre- 
tensions and  real  dignity,  of  his  ostentatious  bearing 
and  royal  birth.  But  the  Count  of  Vermandois  ex- 
cused his  own  compliance,  and  enforced  its  propriety 
on  Godfrey,  by  arguments  best  adapted  to  the  dis- 
interested principles  of  that  single-minded  and  pious 
prince :  such  as  the  paramount  obligation  of  their 
sacred  vows;  the  difficulty  of  reducing  Alexius  to 
more  becoming  terms;  the  impossibility  of  prosecut- 
ing the  holy  enterprise  without  the  imperial  aid ;  the 
probable  ruin  of  the  cause  by  delay  and  wasting  hos- 
tility; and  the  very  sinfulness  of  a  contest  with  a 
Christian  people.  The  reason  of  Godfrey  was  no 
sooner  convinced,  than  all  sentiments  of  worldly 
pride  and  honour  yielded  to  the  humbler  dictates  of 
religious  duty;  and  no  subsequent  persuasions,  with 
which  he  was  addressed  by  the  messengers  of  Boe- 
mond  and  the  Count  of  Thoulouse,  to  await  their 
arrival,  and  chastise  in  arms  the  insulting  demand  of 


88  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

Alexius,  could  shake  the  sincerity  of  his  purpose.  He 
declared  his  resolution  to  take  the  required  oaths  of 
fealty ;  and  the  example  of  his  self-denial  secured  the 
acquiescence  of  his  compeers.  To  remove  their 
lingering  suspicions  of  treachery,  Alexius  delivered 
his  son  as  a  hostage  for  their  safe  return ;  and  Godfrey 
and  his  principal  companions,  repairing  to  Constanti- 
nople, prostrated  themselves  in  homage  before  the 
imperial  throne.  Their  humiliation  was  relieved  by 
a  reception  of  studied  honour;  and  in  return  for  the 
vows  of  fidelity  which  he  repeated  on  his  knees  with 
clasped  hands,  Alexius  distinguished  the  virtue  and 
dignity  of  Godfrey  by  the  ceremonies  of  filial  adop- 
tion, and  investiture  .in  imperial  robes.*  But  these, 
empty  recognitions  faintly  concealed  the  real  triumph 
of  Greek  pride  and  policy;  and  it  was  no  fanciful 
degradation  which  converted  the  brave  and  chivalric 
princes  and  nobles  of  Western  Europe  into  the  vassals 
and  liegemen  of  a  Byzantine  despot.f 

*  Anna  Comnena,  p.  335, 238.  Albert,  p.  203.  Willermus  Tyr. 
p.  656,  657. 

•}•  That  the  humiliation  was  keenly  felt  may  be  inferred  from  the 
sullen  brevity  with  which  the  Latin  chroniclers  dismiss  the  transac- 
tion ;  but  the  daughter  of  Alexius  has  related  an  anecdote,  which 
more  plainly  marks  the  struggling  emotions  of  the  proud  warriors, 
while  it  amusingly  illustrates  the  manners  of  Western  Europe.  Dur- 
ing the  ceremony  of  performing  homage,  a  private  French  baron, 
conjectured  by  Du  Cange,  with  great  probability,  to  have  been 
Robert  of  Paris,  was  so  little  disposed  to  repress  his  disgust  at  the 
pride  of  the  Greek  despot,  and  the  compliance  to  which  religious  or 
political  motives  had  induced  the  more  responsible  leaders  of  the  Cru« 


CRUSADERS    AT    CONSTANTINOPLE.  89 

After  this  ceremony,  Alexius  urged  his  adopted 
son,  and  his  new  dependants,  to  exchange  theii 
threatening  position  near  his  capital  for  more  eligible 
and  abundant  quarters  on  the  Asiatic  side  of  the 
Bosphorus;  and  their  passage  of  that  strait  was  ap- 
parently hastened,  through  his  dread  of  their  being 
reinforced,  while  still  under  the  walls  of  Constanti- 
nople, by  the  other  divisions  of  the  crusading  host. 
Before  the  departure  of  Godfrey,  the  Count  of 
Flanders  and  his  followers  had  already  reached  the 
Byzantine  capital  from  Italy ;  and  their  arrival  was 
speedily  succeeded,  at  short  intervals,  by  that  of  the 
Duke  of  Normandy,  the  Count  of  Chartres,  and  the 

Bade  to  submit,  that  he  audaciously  seated  himself  beside  Alexius  on 
the  imperial  throne.  When  the  brother  of  Duke  Godfrey  attempted 
•to  reprove  him  for  this  rude  disrespect,  he  coolly  retorted  his  con- 
tempt; and  the  emperor  was  so  astonished  by  his  insolence,  that  he 
could  only  demand  through  an  interpreter  his  name  and  condition. 
"I  am  a  Frenchman,"  was  the  reply,  " and  of  noble  birth ;  and  I 
care  only  to  know  that  in  the  neighbourhood  from  which  I  come 
there  is  a  church,  whither  they  who  design  to  prove  their  valour 
repair  to  pray  until  an  adversary  be  found  to  answer  their  defiance. 
There  have  I  often  worshipped,  without  finding  that  man  who  dared 
to  accept  my  challenge."  Alexius,  because  he  well  knew,  says  his 
daughter,  the  fierce  spirit  of  the  Latins,  dissembled  his  resentment, 
or  rather  vented  it  in  an  ironical  caution,  that  if  the  Frenchman  still 
desired  to  maintain  the  same  boast  with  safety,  in  his  crusading 
warfare,  he  would  do  well  to  keep  beyond  reach  of  the  Turkish 
arrows,  by  remaining  in  the  centre  of  the  Christian  host.  His  taunt 
and  his  advice  were  thrown  away ;  and  his  daughter  betrays  some 
satisfaction  in  proceeding  to  record  that  the  insolent  barbarian  fell  in 
the  foremost  ranks  of  the  Crusaders  at  the  battle  of  Dorylaurn 
Anna  Comnena,  ubi  suprd,. 


90 


THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 


The  Emperor  Alexius. 

residue  of  the  great  army  which  had 
origin  all}-  issembled  under  Hugh  of  Vermandois.  By 
the  dext<  rous  application  of  flatteries*  and  bribes, 
each  of  these  potent  chiefs  was  persuaded  in  his  turn 
to  perform  the  same  homage  as  his  precursors,f  and 
was  then  hurried  off  to  join  them  on  the  Asiatic 

*  Even  the  politic  Count  of  Chartres  was  deluded  by  the  arts  of 
Alexius,  who  contrived  to  make  each  of  the  Latin  princes  in  turn 
believe  himself  preferred  to  all  his  confederates.  There  is  extant  a 
curious  and  apparently  authentic  epistle  from  Stephen  to  his 
countess,  in  which  he  unconsciously  shows  how  completely  he  was 
duped  by  the  wily  Greek.  The  emperor  had  inquired  how  many 
were  his  children  j  spoken  much  of  the  love  he  bore  toward  him  and 
his  unknown  house ;  pretended  that  the  count  must  send  for  one  of 
his  sons  to  be  educated  at  the  Byzantine  court ;  and  bade  him  reckon 
on  bos'  imperial  favour  to  provide  for  the  youth :  in  all  which  the 
wise  count  religiously  confided.  Mabillon,  Mus.  Ital.  vol.  i  237. 

f  Baldric,  p.  92.     Albert,  p.  204.     Willermus  Tyr.  p.  658-660. 


CRUSADERS    AT    CONSTANTINOPLE.  91 

shore.  The  embarkation  from  the  Apulian  ports  of 
the  third  grand  division,  under  Boemond  and  Tan- 
cred ;  their  passage  of  the  Adriatic  into  Greece ;  and 
their  march  through  that  country,  were  all  regulated 
by  those  able  leaders  with  higher  martial  conduct  and 
discipline.  Large  bodies  of  the  imperial  troops,  with 
dubious  intentions,  hovered  over  their  route,  and 
sometimes  even  attempted  to  obstruct  their  passage, 
and  cut  off  their  detachments;  but  the  skilful  dis- 
positions of  Boemond  frustrated  their  attempts;  and 
the  impetuous  valour  of  Tancred  more  than  once 
punished  the  secret  perfidy  or  open  aggression  of  a 
pusillanimous  enemy.  The  whole  march  to  the 
vicinity  of  Constantinople  was  triumphantly  com- 
pleted; and  here  Boemond,  being  met  by  Godfrey 
himself  with  persuasions  to  satisfy  the  imperial  de- 
mand of  fealty,  left  his  army  in  charge  of  his  gallant 
kinsman,  and  with  a  small  train  proceeded  to  the 
capital  of  Alexius.* 

The  belief  of  that  monarch's  duplicity  in  his  re- 
ception of  the  other  Latin  princes  is  increased  by  the 
equal  cordiality  with  which  he  welcomed  this  hateful 
enemy.  He  alluded  to  Boemond's  earlier  invasion  of 
his  empire  only  to  extol  the  valour  which  he  had  dis- 
played in  that  enterprise,  and  to  express  his  own 
eatisfaction  at  the  pacific  union  which  now  effaced 
every  feeling  of  enmity.  With  as  consummate  hypo- 

*  Robertas  Monachus,  p.  36,  37.  Baldricus  Archiepiscoptu?,  p.  92, 
Guibert,  p.  488.  Willerinus  Tyr.  p.  658. 


92  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

crisy,  Boemond  on  his  part  professed  his  self-reproach 
at  the  injustice  of  his  former  hostility,  and  his  desire 
to  prove  his  gratitude  for  so  gracious  an  oblivion  of 
injuries.  But  Alexius,  as  well  aware  of  his  ambitious 
and  greedy  character  as  of  his  habitual  faithlessness, 
designed  to  secure  his  allegiance  by  the  only  motives 
of  selfish  interest  which  could  be  binding  on  a  nature 
so  sordid.  After  causing  him  to  be  lodged  and  en- 
tertained in  the  most  magnificent  style  in  one  of  the 
imperial  palaces,  the  cunning  monarch  ordered  the 
door  of  a  chamber  filled  with  heaps  of  gold  and  jewels 
to  be  left,  as  if  accidently,  open  when  he  passed.  The 
Norman  was  ravished  with  deRght  and  envy  as  he 
gazed  at  the  glittering  hoards;  and  his  ruling  im- 
pulses were  betrayed  in  the  involuntary  exclamation, 
that,  to  the  possessor  of  such  treasures,  the  conquest 
of  a  kingdom  might  be  an  easy  achievement.  He 
was  immediately  informed  that  the  gift  of  the  em- 
peror made  them  his  own ;  and,  after  a  slight  hesita- 
tion, his  avarice  swallowed  the  bait.  His  perform- 
ance of  homage  to  Alexius  was  succeeded  by  dreams 
of  ambition,  which  perhaps  aspired  to  the  imperial 
throne  itself;  and  his  expressions  of  devotion  to  its 
service  were  accompanied  by  a  proposal  that  he 
should  be  invested  with  the  office  of  Great  Domestic 
of  the  East,  or  General  of  the  Byzantine  armies  in 
Asia.  A  present  compliance  with  this  audacious  de- 
mand, whhh  shocked  the  pride,  and  might  well 
startle  the  suspicions  of  Alexius,  was  prudently 


CRUSADEtfS    AT    CONSTANTINOPLE.  93 

avoided  with  hollow  assurances  that  the  highest  dig- 
nities of  the  empire  should  be  the  reward  of  future 
services ;  and  the  baffled  or  sanguine  adventurer  was 
persuaded  to  join  the  Asiatic  camp  of  his  confede- 
rates. The  opposite  conduct  of  his  high-minded 
relative  had  meanwhile  excited  equal  alarm.  Dis- 
daining, on  his  arrival  at  Constantinople,  to  imitate 
the  baseness  of  Boemond,  Tancred  had  quitted  the 
capital  unobserved,  and  crossed  the  Bosphorus  in  dis- 
guise. By  this  flight  he  had  only  designed  to  escape 
the  degradation  of  owning  himself  the  vassal  of  a 
foreign  prince;  but  the  suspicion  and  resentment  of 
the  emperor  were  not  allayed  until  Boemond  unscru- 
pulously pledged  himself  by  oath  for  the  homage  and 
allegiance  of  his  cousin.* 

The  arrival  of  the  last  army  of  crusaders  under  the 
Count  of  Thoulouse,  exhausted  the  artifices  of  the 
imperial  policy.  After  traversing  Northern  Italy, 
that  skilful  and  veteran  commander  had  led  his  forces 
into  the  Byzantine  provinces,  through  the  wild  passes 
of  Dalmatia.  His  march,  though  distressed  by  the 
noxious  climate  and  rugged  obstacles  of  that  moun- 
tainous region,  and  successively  harassed  by  the  sa- 
vage Dalmatians,  and  by  the  no  less  hostile  Greeks, 
had  been  prosecuted  with  so  much  energy  and  vigi- 
lance, that  his  host,  after  exercising  a  passing  ven- 


*  Baldric,  p.  92-94.  Albertis  Aquensis,  p.  204.  Guibert,  p.  491. 
Willennus  Tyr.  p.  659.  Anna  Comnena,  p.  238-241.  RaduJphus 
Cadomensis,  de  Gestis  Tancredi,  p.  289,  290. 


94  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

geance  on  their  treacherous  assailants,  reached  the 
shores  of  the  Bosphorus  in  unimpaired  strength  and 
discipline ;  and  the  news  of  his  formidable  approach 
at  the  head  of  one  hundred  thousand  Provengals  and 
Italians,  revived  the  liveliest  apprehensions  in  the 
imperial  court.  At  some  distance  from  Constanti- 
nople, the  army  was  met  by  messengers  both  from 
Alexius  and  from  Godfrey  and  his  associates,  with  a 
united  request  to  the  Count  of  Thoulouse  to  repair  to 
the  capital.  Raymond  complied  with  the  invitation ; 
but,  on  his  arrival,  neither  the  arts  of  the  emperor, 
nor  the  solicitations  of  his  confederates,  could  induce 
him  to  kneel  before  the  imperial  throne.  Once  more 
is  the  emperor  accused,  on  his  failure  in  this  negotia- 
tion, of  having  directed  a  treacherous  surprise  of  the 
Provencal  camp ;  and,  whatever  was  its  origin,  a  fu- 
rious collision  ensued  between  the  troops  of  Raymond 
and  of  Alexius.  The  Greeks  were  defeated  with  sig- 
nal carnage;  and,  in  the  first  suggestions  of  ven- 
geance, the  Count  of  Thoulouse  was  with  difficulty 
restrained  from  vowing  war  to  the  utterance  against 
so  perfidious  a  race.  He  repelled  with  contempt  the 
menaces  both  of  Alexius  and  of  Boemond,  wrho  now 
ostentatiously  avowing  himself  the  most  faithful 
champion  of  the  empire,  proclaimed  his  resolution  to 
turn  his  arms  in  its  succour  even  against  his  recusant 
confederate.  To  the  milder  expostulations  of  God- 
frey, the  aged  count  so  far  yielded  as  to  tender  an 
oath  thit  he  would  abstain  from  all  enterprises  against 


CRUSADERS  AT  CONSTANTINOPLE.     95 

the  life  and  dignity  of  Alexius ;  but  beyond  this  con- 
cession his  cold"  and  stubborn  pride  was  equally  im- 
penetrable to  threats  and  entreaties.  He  declared 
that  he  had  quitted  his  native  dominions  to  devote 
the  residue  of  his  life  to  the  service  of  God  alone,  not 
to  submit  himself  to  any  earthly  master ;  and  Alexius, 
either  awed  into  personal  respect  by  the  firmness  of 
his  spirit,  or  desirous  of  conciliating  so  powerful  a 
chief,  suddenly  changed  his  whole  demeanour,  loaded 
him  with  assiduous  attentions,  and  treated  him  with 
such  real  or  affected  confidence  as  to  impart  his  secret 
hatred  and  suspicion  of  Boemond.  The  old  Provencal 
prince  listened  with  pleasure  to  these  complaints  of  a 
rival  whose  interference  had  already  irritated  his  jea- 
lous and  vindictive  temper;  and  his  heated  passions 
unguarding  the  usual  wariness  of  his  politic  judg- 
ment, made  him  an  easy  dupe  to  the  superior  craft  of 
the  wily  Greek.  Alexius  so  completely  gained  the 
ascendency  over  his  mind,  that  he  lingered  at  Con- 
stantinople after  the  departure  of  the  other  chief- 
tains; and  the  Count  of  Thoulouse,  who  had  been 
loudest  in  his  denunciations  against  the  perfidy  of  the 
Byzantine  court,  was  among  the  last  to  quit  its  se- 
ductive hospitalities  for  the  Asiatic  camp  of  the  cru- 
saders.* 


*  Raymond  de  Agiles,  p.  140,  141.     Robert,  p.  38.     Guibert, 
p.  490.     Willenms  Tyr.  p.  660-662.     Anna  Comnena,  p.  241. 


96  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 


SECTION  VI. 

THE    SIEGE    OF    NICE. 

EFORE  the  arrival  of  the  Provencal 
forces,  all  the  other  great  divisions  of 
the  crusading  levies  had  already  com- 
pleted their  junction  on  the  plains  of 
Asia  Minor;  and  their  wants  rather 
than  their  strength  had  been  increased  by  the  wretched 
remnants  of  the  preceding  mob,  who,  with  Peter  the 
Hermit  himself,  had,  in  recovered  confidence,  found 
their  way  from  various  places  of  refuge  to  the  general 
muster.  The  enormous  numbers  of  the  congregated 
hosts  of  Christendom  can  be  estimated  with  little 
hope  of  precision ;  either  from  the  tumid  metaphors 
of  the  Grecian  Princes,  who  has  described  their  deso- 
lating course,  or  from  the  positive  assertions  of  the 


THE    SIEGE    OF    NICE.  97 

Latin  writers,  whose  ignorance  of  military  affairs 
might  easily  mislead  their  computations,  and  whose 
astonishment  at  the  view  of  so  prodigious  an  array 
was  sure  to  be  vented  in  exaggeration.  If  we  were 
to  credit  some  of  our  usual  authorities,  six  or  seven 
hundred  thousand  warriors  were  present  in  arms; 
besides  an  innumerable  multitude  of  ecclesiastics, 
women,  and  children.*  But  the  report  of  the  same 
party  in  other  places,f  and  every  evidence  of  reason 
and  probability,  are  alike  inconsistent  with  this  con- 
clusion ;  -it  may  be  suspected  that  the  leaders  of  the 
war  were  themselves  unable  to  ascertain  the  real 
numbers  of  a  disorderly  herd  of  irregular  infantry ; 
and  we  can  rely  with  safety  only  on  the  statement 
of  the  most  judicious  chronicler  of  the  Crusade,  that 
the  mailed  cavalry,  which,  according  to  the  rude 
tactics  of  the  Middle  Ages,  formed  the  nerve  of  armies, 
amounted  to  one  hundred  thousand  men.J  This  su- 
perb body  of  heavy  horse  was  composed  of  the  flower 
of  the  European  chivalry  :  knights,  esquires,  and  their 
attendant  men-at-arms,  completely  equipped  with  the 
helmet  and  shield,  the  coat  and  boots  of  chain  and 
scale-armour,  the  lance  and  the  sword,  the  battle-axe 
and  the  ponderous  mace  of  iron.  The  crowd  of  foot- 
men fought  principally  with  the  long  and  cross  bow,  and 
were  used  indifferently  as  occasion  required  for  archers, 

*  Fulcher.  p.  387.     Willermus  Tyr.  p.  664. 
|  Willermus  Tyr.  p.  693,  &c. 
j  Guibcrt,  p.  491. 

7 


98  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

scouts,  and  pioneers ;  but  their  half-armed  and  motley 
condition  formed  a  miserable  contrast  to  the  splendour 
of  the  chivalric  array,  which  glittered  in  the  blazonry 
of  embroidered  and  ermined  surcoats,  shields  and  head- 
pieces inlaid  with  gems  and  gold,  and  banners  and 
pennons  distinguishing  the  princely  and  noble  rank 
of  chieftains  and  knights.* 

From  their  first  camp  on  the  Asiatic  shores  of  .the 
Bosphorus,  the  advance  of  the  Christian  hosts,  in  bold 
disregard  of  minor  objects  of  attack,  was  immediately 
directed  against  Nice,  the  capital  of  the  Sultan  of 
Roum,f  situated  in  a  fertile  plain  on  the  direct  route 
to  Jerusalem.  Resting  on  the  waters  of  the  lake 
Ascanius,  the  defensive  capabilities  of  that  city  had 
been  sedulously  improved  by  art.  It  was  surrounded 
by  a  double  wall  of  stupendous  height  and  thickness, 
provided  with  a  deep  ditch,  and  flanked  at  intervals 
by  no  less  than  three  hundred  and  seventy  towers ; 
its  garrison  was  numerous  and  brave ;  and  the  Sultan 
Solyman,  (or  Kilidge  Arslan,)J  who  had  retired  to 

*  Albert.  Aquensis,  p.  103,  212,  241,  392,  &c.  This  writer  fondly 
dwells  on  the  splendid  array  of  the  crusading  hosts,  and  affords  us 
more  information  than  any  of  the  other  chroniclers  on  the  arma- 
ment, composition,  &c.  of  the  troops. 

•{•  Kouni,  a  corruption  of  Roma,  (Rome,)  was  the  name  given  to 
the  Mussulman  kingdom,  founded  in  Asia  Minor  by  the  Seljoukian 
Turks,  about  the  year  1074,  and  of  which  Nicaea,  or  Nice,  the  chief 
city  of  Bythinia,  was  the  capital.  It  was  against  this  city,  where 
the  first  General  Council  of  the  Church  was  assembled  under  Con- 
stantine,  A.  D.  325,  that  the  crusading  army  now  marched. 

|  De  Guignos,  vol.  i.  245.  . 


THE    SIEGE    OF    NICE.  99 

the  neighbouring  mountains  with  his  Turkish  cavalry, 
preserving  his  communication  with  the  place  by  the 
lake,  might  with  equal  facility  reinforce  its  defenders, 
and  harass  the  quarters  of  the  besiegers.  Nothing 
deterred  by  these  difficulties,  the  crusaders,  on  their 
arrival  before  the  city,  undertook  the  siege  with  an 
energy  suitable  to  the  obstinacy  which  was  anticipated 
in  the  defence.  Notwithstanding  their  numbers,  the 
immense  circumference  of  the  walls  prevented  a  com- 
plete investment;  but  each  independent  leader,  suc- 
cessively encamping  on  the  first  quarter  which  he 
found  unoccupied,  from  thence  directed  and  prosecuted 
his  attacks.  Contrary  to  the  impressions  which  later 
historians  have  sometimes  given,  that  a  chief  author- 
ity over  the  crusading  hosts  was  conceded  to  Duke 
Godfrey,  it  is  here  observable  that  no  traces  of  such  a 
recognition  of  supremacy  can  be  discovered  in  the 
narrative  of  contemporary  chroniclers.  The  general 
plan  of  operations  was  sometimes  debated  and  deter- 
mined in  a  council  of  princes;  but  the  details  and 
choice  of  execution  were  abandoned  to  the  uncontrol- 
lable will  of  the  different  chieftains  and  their  respec- 
tive followers,  who  were  alike  too  proud  of  personal 
rank,  and  too  jealous  of  national  distinctions,  to  brook 
any  submission  to  a  foreign  command.  But  the  same 
feelings  which  were  repugnant  to  all  subordination 
and  unity  of  action,  in  a  great  degree  supplied  their 
want  with  a  generous  emulation  of  glory ;  and,  in  the 
leaguer  of  Nice,  the  Latin  princes  contended  with 


100  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

rival  valour  and  industry  who  should  be  foremost  in 
urging  his  approaches  to  the  walls.  On  the  northern 
side  were  encamped  Duke  Godfrey  and  his  Rhenish 
and  German  division ;  eastward  extended  the  quarters 
of  the  Counts  of  Vermandois  and  Chartres  and  the 
two  Roberts,  with  the  French,  Norman,  English,  and 
Flemish  crusaders ;  on  the  same  front,  the  Provencal 
and  Italian  host  of  the  Count  of  Thoulouse  took  up  a 
continued  alignement ;  and,  toward  the  south,  the  city 
was  enclosed  by  the  troops  of  Boemond  and  Tancred. 
Two  thousand  men  who  had  attended  the  march  of 
the  crusaders,  under  Taticius,  as  imperial  lieutenant, 
were  the  only  Byzantine  forces  in  the  confederate 
camp.* 

From  their  respective  quarters,  each  of  these  divi- 
sions pushed  forward  its  attacks,  with  all  the  mecha- 
nical expedients  which  the  Middle  Ages  had  im- 
perfectly preserved  out  of  the  martial  science  of  clas- 
sical antiquity.  Among  the  principal  machines  of  the 
besiegers  were  lofty  wooden  towers  of  several  stories, 
termed  beJfredi,-\~  or  belfroi-s,  which  were  moved  for- 
ward on  rollers  or  wheels ;  protected  against  confla- 
gration by  coverings  of  boiled  hides;  filled  with 
archers  to  dislodge  the  defenders  from  the  ramparts ; 
and  supplied  with  drawbidges,  which,  on  a  nearer 
approach,  being  let  down  upon  the  walls,  afforded  a 

*  Robert.  Mon.  p.  39,  40.     Albert.  Aquensis,  p.  204,  205.     Wil- 
lermus  Tyr.  p.  666.     Anna  Conmena,  p.  247. 
"|  Du  Cange  v.  Bdfredus. 


THE    SIEGE    OF    NICE.  101 

passage  for  the  knights  and  their  followers  to  rush  to 
the  assault.  !  The  advance  of  these  belfrois  was  some- 
time preceded,  the  road  levelled,  and  the  ditch  of  a 
fortress  filled  up,  by  means  of  a  movable  gallery  or 
shed  of  similar  materials,  but  lower  structure,  called 
indifferently  a  fox  or  cat,*  or  chat-chateil  when  sur- 
mounted also  by  a  tower.  Under  cover  of  these  gal- 
leries, the  walls  could  either  be  undermined  by  the 
slow  operation  of  the  sap,  or  breached  by  the  violent 
blows  of  the  battering-ram.  Balistic  engines  of  va- 
rious sizes  and  denominations  for  hurling  masses  of 
rock,  beams  of  timber,  stones,  and  darts,  composed  the 
ordinary  artillery  both  of  the  assailants  and  besieged ; 
and  the  most  effectual  means  of  defence  were  afforded 
by  the  use  of  the  Greek  fire  in  destroying  the  hostile 
machines.f 

The  mechanical  operations  of  the  crusaders  were 
for  a  while  arrested  by  the  gallant  efforts  of  the  Sul- 
tan of  Roum,  who,  descending  from  the  mountains 
which  overhang  the  plain  of  Nice  with  a  swarm  of 
fifty  thousand  horse,  endeavoured  by  a  sudden  and 
impetuous  attack,  with  the  assistance  of  the  garrison, 
to  overpower  the  Eastern  camp  of  the  Christians.  But 
his  hope  of  surprising  their  quarters  was  frustrated  by 
the  capture  of  the  messengers  who  were  intrusted  to 
convey  his  purpose  to  the  city;  he  everywhere  en- 


*  Idem,  vv.  Catus,  Vulpes,  &c. 

f  Muratori,  Antiq.  Mod.  jEvi,  Diss.  xxvi. 


102  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

countered  a  determined  resistance  and  a  bloody  re- 
pulse ;  and  his  first  experience  of  the  valour  of  the 
Western  Christians  compelled  him  to  abandon  Nice  to 
its  fate.  The  defence  of  the  city  was  not  the  less 
resolutely  maintained ;  and  the  attempts  of  the  be- 
siegers to  breach  the  walls  were  repeatedly  foiled, 
their  projectile  engines  disabled,  and  their  towers  and 
galleries  crushed  by  fragments  of  rock,  or  burned  by 
the  Greek  fire.  Some  weeks  had  already  been  con- 
sumed in  fruitless  labour  and  slaughter,  when  the 
position  of  the  city  on  the  lake  Ascanius  suggested  to 
the  besiegers  a  more  successful  expedient.  At  their 
desire,  Alexius  caused  a  number  of  small  vessels  to 
be  prepared  in  his  arsenals,  transported  over  land,  and 
launched  upon  the  lake.  This  flotilla,  manned  by 
seamen  and  archers  in  the  imperial  pay,  insured  the 
command  of  the  lake,  alarmed  the  city  on  that  side 
with  desultory  attacks,  and  intercepting  all  its  com- 
munication by  water  with  the  exterior  country,  com- 
pleted the  investment  of  the  place.* 

Meanwhile  the  besiegers  continued  their  works  with 
renewed  spirit.  The  veteran  Count  of  Thoulouse, 
whose  approaches  had  been  conducted  with  most  skill 
and  pertinacity,  at  length  succeeded,  by  the  science  of 
a  Lombard  engineer,  in  attaching  with  safety  a  chat- 
chateil,  or  castellated  gallery,  to  one  of  the  towers  of 


*  Albert,  p.  205,  206.     Willermus  Tyr.  p.  667.     Anna  Com 
nena,  p.  245. 


THE     SIEGE    OF    NICE.  103 

the  city,  which  had  been  injured  in  a  former  siege, 
and  was  bent  forward  from  its  base.  The  miners  of 
the  besiegers  propped  the  superincumbent  mass  with 
strong  timbers  while  they  loosened  the  foundations ; 
and  the  supports  being  then  fired,  the  whole  fell  with 
a  tremendous  crash,  and  left  a  yawning  breach.  But, 
instead  of  seizing  the  first  moment  of  consternation 
by  which  the  garrison  were  paralyzed,  the  Provencals 
imprudently  delayed  the  assault  until  the  following 
morning;  and  an  artful  Greek  contrived  in  the  inter- 
val to  rob  them  of  the  fruits  of  success.  The  wife 
and  sister  of  the  Sultan,  whom  he  had  left  in  the  city 
until  this  moment,  endeavoured  on  the  first  alarm  to 
escape  over  the  lake  ;  they  were  captured  by  the  im- 
perial.  flotilla ;  and  Butomite,  its  commander,  imme- 
diately offered,  not  only  their  honourable  release,  but 
protection  to  the  people  of  Nice  against  the  fury  of 
the  Latins,  if  the  city  were  surrendered  to  his  master. 
The  now  despairing  inhabitants  accepted  his  terms ; 
the  troops  of  the  flotilla  disembarking  were  admitted 
into  the  city ;  and  when  the  crusaders,  with  returning 
day,  were  prepared  to  mount  the  breach  of  the  fallen 
tower,  the  first  spectacle  which  they  beheld  was  the 
imperial  banner  floating  on  its  walls.  [20th  June, 
1097.]  In  their  wounded  pride  and  disappointed 
cupidity  at  being  thus  cheated  of  the  honour  and 
spoils  of  victory,  the  first  impulse  of  the  crusaders 
was  to  continue  the  assault.  But  a  prudential  con- 
sideration of  the  ulterior  objects  of  the  war  induced 


104  THE    FIRST    CRUS'ADE. 

their  princes  to  stifle  their  own  emotions  of  disgust  at 
the  artifice  of  Alexius  or  his  lieutenant,  and  to  ap- 
pease the  louder  resentment  of  their  followers ;  and, 
after  a  few  days  of  repose,  the  whole  crusading  host, 
breaking  up  from  the  camp  before  Nice,  pursued  the 
destined  route  toward  Jerusalem.* 

*  Fulcher.  Carnot.  p.  387.  Raymond  de  Agiles,  p.  142.  Bal- 
dric. Arch.  p.  97.  Albert,  p.  206-208.  Guibert,  p.  491-493. 
Willcrmua  Tyr.  668-672.  Anna  Comnena  p.  246-250. 


DEFEAT    OF    THE    TURKS. 


105 


SECTION  vn. 

DEFEAT   OF  THE   TURKS— SEIZURE   OF  EDESSA. 

their  passage  through  Asia  Minor, 
a  march  of  five  hundred  miles  was 
still  to  be  accomplished  before  the 
crusaders  could  touch  the  confines  of 
Syria ;  and  the  Sultan  of  Roum, 
whose  spirit  had  only  been  roused  to 
increased  energy  by  the  loss  of  his  capital  and  the 
danger  of  his  kingdom,  was  already  prepared  to  offer 
a  formidable  resistance  to  their  progress.  His  ap- 
peal,  both  to  his  own  subjects  and  to  the  independent 
chieftains  of  his  kindred  race,  for  assistance  in  repel- 


106  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

ling  these  new  invaders,  who  so  unexpectedly  menaced 
their  faith  and  their  nation  with  a  common  destruc- 
tion, had  been  eagerly  answered.  From  all  sides  the 
Turkish  hordes  flocked  to  his  standard  ;  and  so  innu- 
merable was  the  force  which  he  collected,  that  by  some 
of  the  Latin  writers  it  is  supposed  to  have  exceeded 
three  hundred  thousand  horse;  With  this  immense 
cloud  of  cavalry,  during  the  first  few  days'  advance 
of  the  crusaders  from  Nice,  wrhile  their  strength  was 
fresh  and  their  array  undivided,  he  merely  hovered  on 
their  flanks ;  but  his  forbearance  ceased  when  the  con- 
venience or  the  necessities  'of  their  march  induced 
them  to  separate  into  two  distinct  columns  on  different 
routes.  In  one  division  were  now  Duke  Godfrey  and 
the  Counts  of  Vermandois  and  Thoulouse;  in  the 
other,  Boemond  and  Tancred,  the  Duke  of  Normandy, 
and  the  Counts  of  Flanders  and  Chartres.* 

Before  the  latter  and  less  numerous  of  the  two  co- 
lumns had  reached  Dorylaeum — the  modern  Eskische- 
ker — about  fifty  miles  from  Nice,  it  was  suddenly 
enveloped,  while  reposing  in  a  valley,  by  the  Turkish 
swarms.  The  first  astonishment  of  the  surprise,  the 
unearthly  yells,  and  the  furious  onset  of  the  barba- 
rians, struck  dismay  and  disorder  into  the  Christian 
ranks ;  and  the  fate  of  the  day  was  held  in  suspense 
only  by  the  gallant  example,  the  desperate  efforts,  and 


*  Albert.  Aquensis,  p    215.      Willermus   Tyr.  p.   672.     Anna 
Comnena,  p.  251. 


DEFEAT    OF    THE    TURKS.  107 

the  personal  prowess  of  the  three  leaders  of  Norman 
Mood,  Boemondj  Tancred,  and  Duke  Robert.  While 
the  lightly  armed  and  active  cavalry  of  the  Asiatics 
easily  evaded  a  close  encounter  with,  the  heavy  array 
of  the  Europeans,  their  clouds  of  arrows  slew  the 
unbarded  horses,  and  pierced  every  opening  in  the 
body  armour  of  the  Christian  warriors.  Overwhelmed 
with  the  dense  confusion  of  the  field,  oppressed  by 
the  ponderous  weight  of  their  own  equipment,  and 
fainting  under  the  intense  heat  and  burning  thirst  of 
the  climate,  the  weary  and  despairing  crusaders  with 
difficulty  sustained  an  equal  conflict.  To  regain  some 
degree  of  order,  their  leaders  could  only  cover  a  retreat 
and  draw  off  their  exhausted  squadrons;  and  the 
Turks,  flushed  with  success,  penetrated  into  their 
camp  and  commenced  an  indiscriminate  massacre  of 
the  aged  and  infirm  pilgrims,  the  women  and  the 
children. 

In  this  extremity,  the  skilful  and  valorous  conduct 
of  Boemond,  never  elsewhere  so  nobly  contrasted  with 
the  baser  qualities  of  his  character,  saved  the  whole 
crusading  host  from  destruction.  In  the  first  alani 
he  had,  with  cool  foresight,  despatched  notice  of  the 
danger  to  the  other  division  under  Godfrey  and  the 
Count  of  Thoulouse;  and  now  reanimating  his  con- 
federates and  followers  to  rescue  or  revenge  the  help- 
less victims  whose  shrieks  pierced  their  ears,  he 
rushed  again  at  their  head  toward  the  camp,  and  fell 
with  resistless  impetuosity  upon  the  triumphant  and 


108  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

sanguinary  barbarians.  The  Duke  of  Normandy 
bravely  supported  his  charge ;  the  inspiring  shout  of 
« Deus  vult"  which  had  first  been  heard  at  the  Coun- 
cil of  Clermont,  was  now  the  war-cry  which  rang 
again  through  the  Christian  squadrons;  and  the  fight 
was  renewed  with  all  the  courage  which  a  sense  of 
religious  duty  could  add  to  the  stern  resolves  of 
vengeance  and  despair.  But  the  Crusaders  were  still 
encountered  with  equal  resolution  and  superior  force* 
and  the  tide  of  Turkish  victory  was  arrested  at  this 
juncture  only  by  the  opportune  approach  of  Duke 
Godfrey  and  the  Count  of  Vermandois,  who,  at  the 
first  summons,  had  urged  their  cavalry,  forty  thou- 
sand strong,  at  the  utmost  speed  to  the  succour  of 
their  confederates.  The  junction  of  this  formidable 
reinforcement,  in  fresh,  firm,  and  ardent  array,  in- 
fused new  life  into  the  sinking  energy  of  their 
brethren,  and  in  the  same  proportion  depressed  the 
confident  spirit  of  the  Turks.  The  quivers  of  the 
infidels  were  already  emptied ;  the  length  of  the 
struggle  had  worn  down  their  activity;  and  in  the 
close  combat  which  they  could  no  longer  escape,  their 
inferiority  to  the  warriors  of  the  West  in  bodily 
strength  and  martial  equipment  was  signally  dis- 
played. The  supple  dexterity  of  the  Asiatic  was 
now  feebly  opposed  to  the  ponderous  strokes  of  the 
European  arm;  the  curved  scimitar  and  light  javelin 
could  neither  parry  nor  return  with  effect  the  deadly 
thrust  of  the  long  pointed  sword  and  gigantic  lance ; 


DEFEAT    OF    THE    TURKS.  109 

and  ill  a  direct  charge,  the  weight  and  compactness 
of  the  Latin  chivalry  overpowered  the  loose  order  and 
desultory  tactics  of  the  Turkish  hordes. 

While  the  infidel  host  bent  and  wavered  before  the 
determined  assault  of  the  Christians,  the  last  division 
of  the  Crusaders  arrived  on  the  field;  and  Count 
Raymond  directing  his  ProvenQals  on  the  flank  or 
rear  of  the  disordered  enemy,  completed  their  terror 
and  ruin.  [4th  July,  1097.]  They  broke  and  fled  in 
every  direction,  were  pursued  until  the  close  of  day 
with  unremitting  slaughter,  and  were  compelled  to 
abandon  their  camp  to  the  possession  of  the  con- 
querors Of  the  crusaders,  four  thousand  had  fallen ; 
but  they  were  for  the  most  part  of  humble  condition ; 
and  the  number  included  persons  of  both  sexes  who 
were  -massacred  when  the  infidels  first  burst  into  the 
Christian  camp.  Among  the  Turkish  host,  in  the 
battle  and  the  pursuit,  thirty  thousand  had  been 
slain ;  and  no  less  than  three  thousand  of  these  were 
chieftains  or  warriors  of  distinction,  whose  rank  was 
proclaimed  by  the  value  of  the  spoils  found  on  their 
bodies.  The  pillage  of  the  Asiatic  camp  offered  a  still 
richer  reward  to  the  victors,  in  immense  quantities  of 
goltl  and  silver,  arms  and  apparel,  war-horses,  camels, 
and  other  beasts  of  burden.* 

By  the  general  confession  of  the  Latins  themselves, 
the  Turks  had  displayed  a  valour  and  warlike  skill 

*  Robertas  Monachus,  p.  41,  42.  Quibert,  p.  493,  494.  Wilier- 
mus  Tyr.  p.  674.  lladulphus  Caduinensis,  p.  293/294. 


110 


THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 


A  Turkish  Encampment. 

which  excited  their  astonishment  and  deserved  their 
admiration;  and  the  surprise  produced  by  the  unex- 
pected discovery  of  these  qualities  in  an  Asiatic 
nation  is  evinced  in  the  assertion,  that  they  alone  of 
all  Eastern  people  were  worthy  of  contending  in  arms 
with  the  Christian  chivalry,  and  of  sharing  with  the 
warriors  of  the  West  a  common  superiority  in  martial 
virtues  over  the  despicable  Greeks.  The  conduct  of 
the  Sultan  of  Rouin,  after  the  battle  of  Dorylseum, 
afforded  a  more  unequivocal  testimony  of  the  respect 
and  fear  with  which  the  prowess  of  the  Crusaders  had 
impressed  the  infidels  themselves.  Abandoning  all 


DEFEAT    OF    THE    TURKS.  Ill 

further  hope  of  successful  resistance  to  the  conquerors 
Solyman  hastily  evacuated  his  kingdom  with  the 
wreck  of  his  army,  every  where  ravaging  the  land  in 
his  flight;  and  the  crusaders  were  left  without  oppa 
si tion  to  continue  their  advance  through  a  desolated 
and  deserted  country.  Their  march  over  the  wasted 
plains  of  Asia  Minor  skirted  the  base  of  the  great 
mountain  range  which  stretches  across  that  celebrated 
region  from  the  sea  of  Marmora  to  the  Syrian  gates ; 
and  their  route  may  be  traced  on  the  modern  map  by 
the  cities  of  Kara  Hissar,  Aksheer,  Konich,  and 
Ereckli. 

The  horrors  which  attended  the  passage  of  so  un- 
wieldy a  host,  undisciplined  and  unprovisioned  by  any 
of  the  arrangements  which  are  familiar  to  the  military 
science  and  economy  of  our  own  times,  admit  but  of 
imperfect  description,  and  may  only  faintly  be  ima- 
gined. The  towns  had  been  swept  of  their  inhabitants 
and  stores,  the  cultivated  districts  converted  into  a 
scathed  and  hungry  solitude;  and  the  more  natural 
deserts  which  frequently  intervened  were  parched  \vith 
sand  and  destitute  of  water.  Of  the  poorer  and  worse 
provided  _among  the  crusaders,  hundreds  died  on  every 
day's  march,  of  want  and  fatigue,  of  raging  thirst  or 
its  fatal  gratification ;  war-horses,  baggage-animals,  and 
hounds  and  hawks — the  indispensable  incurnbrances 
of  a  chivalric  camp — perished  alike  from  a  scarcity  of 
water;  and  of  the  splendid  cavalry  of  the  princes, 
nobles,  and  their  followers,  which  on  the  field  of  Nice 


DEFEAT    OF    THE    TURKS.  113 

had  mustered  one  hundred  thousand  lances,  nearly 
thirty  thousand  were  dismounted  before  their  arrival 
under  the  walls  of  Antioch.  In  a  word,  so  completely 
exhausted  and  disorganized  was  the  whole  host  before 
its  approach  to  the  Syrian  frontiers  that,  in  the  tre- 
mendous pass  of  Mount  Taurus,  even  a  small  band  of 
resolute  men  might  have  successfullv  maintained  the 

O  •/ 

steep  and  narrow  defile  against  the  armed  but  feebled 
multitudes  who,  staggering  under  the  oppression  of  toil, 
heat,  and  intolerable  thirst,  slowly  wound  in  a  length- 
ened and  disorderly  train  through  the  mountain  chain 
which  here  bars  the  southern  route.  But  the  panic- 
stricken  Turks,  in  the  precipitation  of  their  flight,  neg- 
lected the  opportunity  of  defence;  the  crusading  host 
was  suffered,  unassailed,  to  complete  the  most  toilsome 
and  dangerous  portion  of  their  march;  and  every  na- 
tural obstacle  of  the  country  and  the  climate  being  gra- 
dually surmounted,  their  straggling  divisions  were  safely 
reunited  in  the  same  encampment  on  the  Syrian  soil.* 
While  the  main  army  of  the  crusaders  prepared 
to  penetrate  through  the  Tauridian  pass,  two 
bodies  of  their  cavalry  had  been  separately  detached 
in  advince  under  Tancred,  and  Baldwin,  the  bro- 
ther of  Duke  Godfrey,  to  explore  the  neighbouring 
regions,  and  make  a  diversion  against  the  Turkish 
power.  After  both  had  wandered  in  some  uncertainty 
among  the  mountains,  the  division  of  Tancred  first 

*  Albert,  p.  215.    Guibert,  p.  495.    Fulcher.  Carnot.  p.  389.    BaV 
dricus  Ar;h.  p.  99.  Willcrmus  Tyr.  p.  675. 

8 


114  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

succeeded  in  effecting  a  passage,  and  continued  its 
southern  descent  into  the  coasts  of  Cilicia.  The 
young  chieftains  had  already  arrived  before  Tarsus, 
and  granted  a  capitulation  to  the  Turkish  garrison, 
when  the  troops  of  Baldwin,  who  had  reached  the 
game  vicinity  by  another  route,  unexpectedly  made 
their  appearance ;  and  the  jealous  artifice  of  their 
leader  succeeded,  by  opening  an  intrigue  with  the 
infidel  and  Christian  inhabitants,  in  obtaining  pos- 
session of  the  city.  The  generous  Italian,  repressing 
his  indignation,  abandoned  the  place  to  his  rival ;  and, 
turning  eastward,  pursued  a  new  course  of  enterprise 
with  so  much  rapidity,  that  several  important  towns 
submitted  to  his  arms.  But  his  forbearing  temper 
was  outraged  beyond  endurance  when  he  learned  that, 
after  his  departure  from  Tarsus,  the  selfish  refusal  of 
Baldwin  to  receive  a  party  of  his  followers  within  the 
protection  of  the  walls,  had  exposed  them  to  be  mas- 
sacred by  the  retreating  infidels;  and  the  Rhenish 
chieftain,  leaving  a  garrison  in  Tarsus,  no  sooner  came 
up  with  his  division  than  Tancred,  yielding  to  the 
natural  impulse  of  resentment  which  he  shared  with 
his  enraged  soldiers,  led  them  to  a  furious  assault 
upon  the  forces  of  their  treacherous  confederate. 
After  a  bloody  encounter,  the  Italians  were  repulsed 
by  a  superiority  of  numbers ;  but  feelings  of  mutual 
compunction  at  so  irreligious  a  fued  between  brethren 
of  the  cross  having  succeeded  to  their  first  emotions 
of  auger,  an  accommodation  was  effected ;  and  the 


DEFEAT    OF    THE    TURKS.  115 

two  detachments  together  rejoined  the  grand  armj 
before  it  reached  the  Syrian  frontier.* 

This  quarrel  of  Baldwin  and  Tancred  had  one  im- 
portant consequence.  The  guilt  of  the  original  ag- 
gression lay  so  clearly  with  the  former,  that,  when  the 
circumstances  of  his  conduct  became  known  in  the 
crusading  camp,  he  justly  incurred  the  execrations  ot 
the  whole  host;  and  respect  for  the  virtues  of  his 
brother  Godfrey  alone  saved  him  from  condign  punish- 
ment. A  consciousness  of  the  aversion  in  which  he 
was  held  by  his  confederates,  did  not  tend  to  lessen 
his  selfish  disregard  for  the  general  interests  of  the 
Crusade;  and  he  gladly  availed  himself  of  the  first 
advantageous  opening  to  separate  from  the  main  army, 
and  pursue  an  independent  career  of  ambition.  He 
learned  that  the  Christian  cities  of  Armenia  and 
Mesopotamia  endured  with  impatience  the  Mussulman 
yoke ;  that  the  Turkish  garrisons  were  few  and  feeble; 
and  that  the  inhabitants  were  ripe  for  revolt  against 
their  oppression.  At  the  instance  of  a  fugitive  Arme- 
nian noble,  and  at  the  head  of  only  two  hundred  of 
his  own  lances,  and  a  more  considerable  body  of  in- 
fantry, he  quitted  the  crusading  camp,  boldly  directed 
his  march  eastward,  and  victoriously  overran  the 
whole  country  as  far  as  the  Euphrates.  Encouraged 
by  the  sight  of  the  banners  of  the  cross,  the  Christian 
population  everywhere  rose  in  arms,  opened  the  gates 

*  Albert.  Aquensis,.p.  214-219.  Radulphus  Cadomensis,  p,  297- 
301.  Willermus  Tyr.  p.  677-680. 


116  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

of  their  cities  on  his  approach,  and  assisted  him  in 
expelling  the  common  infidel  enemy.  After  a  slight 
and  ineffectual  opposition,  the  Turkish  Emirs  either 
fled  or  submitted  to  his  arms ;  the  fame  of  his  suc- 
cessful exploits  soon  spread  beyond  the  Euphrates; 
and  the  people  of  Edessa,  the  most  considerable  city 
of  Mesopotamia,  who,  though  still  governed  by  a  na- 
tive prince,  had  long  groaned  under  the  exactions  of 
Turkish  tribute,  obliged  their  aged  duke  to  implore 
his  aid  in  delivering  them  from  the  infidels.  Baldwin 
eagerly  accepted  the  invitation ;  he  was  received  with 
enthusiasm  by  the  Edessenes;  and,  though  his  dis- 
posable Latin  forces  were  now  reduced  to  eighty 
horse  and  a  small  band  of  foot,  he  was  so  vigorously 
aided  by  these  new  allies,  that  he  found  no  difficulty 
in  establishing  the  independence  of  their  state.  The 
means  by  which  he  next  possessed  himself  of  its  go- 
vernment are  variously  related ;  but,  under  their  most 
favourable  construction,  the  event*  may  justify  the 
darkest  suspicions  of  his  guilty  ambition.  Excited 
by  the  dread  that  their  deliverer  would  forsake  them, 
the  people  of  Edessa  first  compelled  their  duke  to 
adopt*  him  as  his  son  and  successor ;  and  the  old 
prince  was  then  murdered  in  a  popular  insurrection. 

*  For  the  particulars  of  the  singular  ceremony  by  which  this  adop- 
tion was  declared,  we  are  indebted  to  the  lively  narrative  of  Guibert 
In  full  assembly  of  the  people,  Baldwin  was  first  made  to  enter  in  a 
state  of  nudity  under  the  same  shirt  with  bis  new  father,  who  then 
folded  him  to  his  breast  and  gave  him  the  fifiul  kiss.  lie  was  next 
obliged  to  submit  to  precisely  the  same  forms  of  adoption  by  the 


SEIZURE    OF    EDESSA.  -    117 

If  Baldwin  was  really  innocent  of  his  death,  he  pro- 
fited not  the  less  by  the  catastrophe.  He  received 
the  ducal  crown  on  the  following  day ;  and  thus  be- 
came the  founder  of  the  first  Latin  principality  in  the 
East.  Under  his  able  and  vigorous  government,  his 
new  subjects  soon  discovered  that  they  had  chosen  a 
severe  and  absolute  master,  as  well  as  a  formidable 
champion ;  but  he  at  least  completed  their  emancipa- 
tion from  the  hated  tyranny  of  the  infidels  ;  extended 
the  limits  of  their  state  by  his  conquests  from  the 
Turks  of  the  intermediate  territory  between  their 
city  and  Antioch ;  and  rendered  the  PRINCIPALITY  OP 
EDESSA,  by  its  position  beyond  the  Euphrates,  for 
above  fifty  years,  one  of  the  most  important  outworks 
of  the  Christian  power  in  the  East.* 

wife  of  the  Duke  of  Edessa.  Guibert,  p.  496.  It  is  supposed  that 
the  Emperor  Alexius,  in  honouring  the  homage  of  Godfrey  with  the 
filial  relation,  had  also  received  him  between  the  shirt  and  the  skin. 
But  see  Du  Cange,  Diss.  sur  Joinville,  xxii. 

*  Fulcherius  Carnotensis,  p.  389,  390.     Albert  Aquensis,  p.  220- 
222.     Guibert,  p.'  496,  497.     Willermus  Tyr.  p.  682,  683. 


118 


THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 


SECTION  vm. 

SIEGE   AND  CAPTURE  OF  ANTIOCH  BY  THE  CRUSADERS 

HILE  Baldwin  was  engaged  in 
establishing  his  power  on  the 
banks  of  the  Euphrates,  the  main 
host  of  the  Crusaders  had  ad- 
vanced to  Antioch,  and  under- 
taken the  siege  of  that  ancient 
capital  of  Syria.  The  city,  which  still  presented  the 
appearance  of  pristine  grandeur,  and  contained  a 
numerous  Christian  population,  was  possessed  by 
Baghasian,  a  prince  of  Seljukian  lineage ;  whose  power 
was  maintained  by  a_  Turkish  garrison  of  about  ten 
thousand  horse,  and  twice  as  many  infantry,  and 


CAPTURE    OF    ANTIOCH.  119 

whose  courage  and  energy  were  worthy  of  his  station. 
After  some  brave  but  ineffectual  efforts  to  impede  the 
approach  of  the  invaders,  he  retired  within  the  walls; 
and  the  iron  gates  of  the  bridge  over  the  Orontes, 
which  commanded  the  access  to  the  city  from  the 
north,  having  been  forced  by  the  advanced  guard  of 
the  crusaders  under  the  Duke  of  Normandy,  their 
whole  host  passed  the,  river,  and  overspread  the  ad- 
jacent plain.  At  this  epoch,  Antioch,  occupying  an 
irregular  site  of  precipice  and  valley,  was  embraced 
within  a  circumference  of  about  four  miles,  by  a 
strong  wall,  which,  wherever  the  natural  obstacles  of 
the  ground  did  not  afford  a  sufficient  defence,  rose  to 
the  height  of  sixty  feet.  Part  of  the  circuit  was 
covered  by  the  river  and  a  morass  which  received  the 
torrents  from  the  neighbouring  hills,  and  the  re- 
mainder by  a  deep  and  wide  ditch.  The  formidable 
aspect  of  these  works  at  first  dispirited  the  leaders  of 
the  Crusade;  the  lateness  of  the  season — for  the 
summer  and  autumn  had  been  already  consumed  in 
the  passage  of  Asia  Minor — was  unfavourable  for  the 
commencement  of  an  arduous  siege;  and  a  proposal 
to  defer  the  enterprise  until  the  return  of  spring  was 
only  rejected  in  their  council  through  the  energetic 
remonstrances  of  the  Count  of  Thoulouse  against  the 
dangers  of  delay  and  inaction.* 

*  Albert,  p.  225,  226.  Radulph.  Cad.  p.  303.  Raymond  des 
Agiles,  p.  142.  Baldric.  Arch.  p.  101.  Guibert,  p.  498.  Wilier- 
mua  Tyr.  p.  684-689. 


120  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

As  soon  as  the  exhortations  of  that  prince  reno- 
vated the  ardour  of  his  confederates,  the  city  was  in- 
vested, and  operations  against,  it  were  commenced : 
but,  of  the  five  gates  in  its  circumference,  three  only 
were  blockaded ;  and  by  some  unexplained  negligence 
or  necessity,  the  communication  of  the  garrison  with 
the  exterior  country  through  the  other  two  was  left 
open.  From  these  the  resolute  and  active  Baghasian 
harassed  the  rear  of  the  besiegers  with  perpetual 
sallies,  frequently  cut  off  their  supplies,  and  burned 
the  materials  which  we,re  with  difficulty  collected  for 
their  operations.  The  want  of  all  warlike  stores  for 
the  siege,  the  consequent  tardiness  of  the  approaches, 
and  the  unskilful  attempts  to  which  the  crusaders 
were  reduced,  all  betray  the  extent  of  their  obliga- 
tions at  the  preceding  siege  of  Nice  to  the  aid  of 
Alexius  and  his  Greek  engines  and  artificers.  Their 
few  battering  and  projectile  machines  were  now  used 
without  effect ;  and  the  single  movable  tower,  which 
they  were  enabled  to  construct  with  assistance  from 
gome  Italian  vessels  lately  arrived  on  the  coast,  was 
no  sooner  advanced  to  the  walls,  than  the  Turks, 
suddenly  issuing  from  one  of  the  uninvested  gates,  set 
it  on  fire  and  reduced  it  to  ashes.  While  this  and 
other  partial  successes  raised  the  courage  of  the  gar- 
rison, and  their  intercourse  with  the  country  secured 
the  constant  renewal  of  their  supplies,  the  besiegers 
themselves  were  beginning  to  suffer  the  most  grievous 
distresses  from  want  and  disease.  At  first  they  had 


CAPTURE    OF    ANTIOCH.  121 

found  abundant  food  in  the  fertile  district  which  was 
commanded  by  their  camp ;  and  their  whole  host  had 
rioted  in  plenty :  but  the  improvident  waste  and 
wanton  destruction,  both  of  provisions  and  forage, 
speedily  exhausted  the  means  of  support  in  the 
vicinity;  and  when  the  approach  of  winter  increased 
the  difficulty  and  expense  of  transporting  distant  sup- 
plies, the  more  indigent  of  the  crusading  multitude 
fell  a  prey  to  all  the  horrors  of  famine.  Even  the 
rich  were  glad  to  purchase  the  most  disgusting  fare  at 
exorbitant  prices;  and  their  horses  were  either 
starved  or  killed  for  food  in  so  great  numbers,  that  of 
the  seventy  thousand  cavalry  with  which  they  com- 
menced the  siege,  before  its  third  month  was  com- 
pleted not  more  than  two  thousand  remained.  The 
ravages  of  hunger  were,  as  usual,  followed  by  those 
of  pestilence.  The  plain  of  Antioch  was  deluged 
with  the  wintry  rains;  and  the  putrifying  effect  of 
moisture  in  an  Asiatic  climate  upon  the  filthy  con- 
dition of  the  Christian  camp,  produced  a  contagious 
disease,  which  swept  off  thousands  of  its  squalid 
population.* 

From  this  scene  of  accumulated  misery,  numbers 
of  warriors  of  inferior  rank  fled  to  the  establishments 
of  Baldwin  in  Mesopotamia,  and  to  the  delivered 

*  Robertus  Monachus,  p.  45, 46.  Albert,  p.  227-233.  Radulph 
Cad.  p.  304,  305.  Raymond  dcs  Agiles,  p.  143-14S  Baldric. 
Arch.  p.  101.  Fulchcr.  Carnot.  p.  390.  Guibert,  p.  490,  500. 
Willermus  Tyr.  p.  690-693. 


122  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

Christian  towns  in  Cilicia;   but  the  shame  of  their 
desertion  was  exceeded  by  that  of  some  of  the  leaders 
themselves.     The  Duke  of  Normandy  having  with- 
drawn to  the  coast,  required  .several  citations  and  a 
threat  of  excommunication  to  induce  his  return ;  and 
the  Count  of  Chartres,  at  a  later  period,  under  the  ex- 
cuse of  illness,  confirmed  the  suspicion  of  his  coward, 
ice   by  retiring  from  the  camp  with  his  division  to 
Alexandretta.     But  the  sacred  cause  was  still  more 
deeply  disgraced  by  the  flight  of  the  valiant  Viscount 
of  Melun  ;*  together  with  the  great  fanatic  Peter  the 
Hermit,  who,  after  exciting  the  warriors  of  Europe  to 
devote  themselves  to  the  imaginary  service  of  Heaven, 
was  foremost  in  attempting  to  abscond  from  the  pri- 
vations of  the  enterprise.     The  dangerous  effect  of 
this  example  was  prevented  by  the  activity  of  Tan- 
cred,  who  intercepted  the  escape  both  of  the  Hermit 
and  his  companion ;    and   their   desertion  was   only 
pardoned   in   the   council  of  the   indignant   princes, 
upon  their  swearing  never  to  abandon  the  holy  ex- 
pedition.     The    retreat    of    Taticius,    the    imperial 
lieutenant,  with  the  small  body  of  Greek  auxiliaries 
which  he  commanded,  was  permitted  with  mingled 
emotions  of  hope  and  contempt.     He  could  scarcely 
obtain  full  credit  for  the  assertion   that  his  motive 

*  This  worthy  was  surnamed  the  Carpenter ;  not  because  he 
followed  that  mechanical  occupation ;  but,  as  the  chroniclers  are 
careful  to  tell  us,  by  reason  of  the  weighty  strokes  with  which  his 
battle-uxe  hammered  the  heads  of  his  antagonists.  Robert,  p.  47 
Gnibert,  p.  501. 


CAPTURE    OF    ANTIOCH.  123 

was  to  impress  Alexius,  by  his  personal  influence, 
with  the  necessity  of  forwarding  immediate  supplies 
of  provisions  for  the  Syrian  wttr,  though  he  oifered 
the  pledge  of  his  oath  that  he  would  himself  return 
with  the  convoys ;  but  if  the  princes  were  not  deluded 
by  this  shallow  pretext,  they  prudently  dissembled 
their  suspicions,  and  dismissed  him  in  peace.* 

With  the  return  of  spring  the  sufferings  of  the 
crusaders  were  in  some  degree  mitigated  by  the 
arrival  on  the  coast  of  supplies  from  Europe ;  but  the 
activity  of  the  Turks  in  harassing  their  convoys  was 
undiminished ;  and  the  continued  freedom  of  in- 
tercourse between  the  garrison  of  Antioch  and  their 
Syrian  confederates,  perpetually  exposed  the  besiegers 
to  desultory  attacks  in  front  and  rear.  On  one 
occasion,  early  in  February,  an  army  of  twenty  thou- 
sand men,  under  the  three  emirs  of  Aleppo,  Coosarea, 
and  Ems,  was  intercepted  in  an  attempt  to  enter  the 
city,  and  defeated  with  signal  slaughter  by  Count 
Raymond  and  Boemond.  But,  in  the  following 
month,  the  same  crusading  leaders,  while  escorting  a 


*  Robert,  p.  47,  48.  Raymond,  p.  146.  Baldric,  p.  103 
Guibert,  p.  501,  502.  Willerinus  Tyr.  p.  694.  Anna  Comnena, 
p.  252.  The  Grecian  princess,  indeed,  refers  the  flight  of  Taticius 
to  the  arts  of  Boemond,  who  fearing  interruption  on  the  part  of  the 
imperial  lieutenant  in  his  scheme  for  acquiring  the  sovereignty  of 
Antioch,  terrified  him  into  a  belief  that  the  Latin  princes  designed 
to  massacre  him  and  his  troops  on  some  suspicion  that  Alexius  had 
betrayed  them  to  the  Turks.  But  all  the  Latin  writers  agnx  iq 
giving  the  account  copied  in  the  text. 


124  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

supply  of  provisions  and  military  stores  from  the 
coast,  were  suddenly  assailed  and  routed  by  an  am- 
buscade of  the  infidels.  Godfrey,  who  had  lately 
risen  from  a  sick  couch,  was  compelled  to  fly  to  their 
succour  with  the  remains  of  the  Latin  chivalry;  and 
the  ever-enterprising  Baghasian,  seizing  the  occasion 
of  this  absence  of  the  best  troops  of  the  crusaders 
from  the  beleaguer,  made  an  impetuous  sally  from  the 
walls,  and  forced  the  Christian  lines.  The  bravery 
and  conduct  of  the  Duke  of  Brabant  were  never  more 
vigorously  displayed  than  on  this  occasion.  He  re- 
traced his  march  to  the  camp  with  so  great  celerity, 
and  posted  his  forces  with  so  much  ability,  as  to 
intercept  the  retreat  of  Baghasian ;  and  a  furious  con- 
flict ensued  under  the  walls  of  Antioch.  The  infidels 
fought  with  desperation,  but  their  courage  was  une- 
qually opposed  to  the  heroic  spirit  and  sinewy  force 
of  the  Christian  knighthood,  animated  by  the  indi- 
vidual prowess  of  its  leaders;  among  whom  the  two 
dukes,  Godfrey,  and  Robert  of  Normandy,  and  the 
gallant  Tancred,  are  recorded  to  have  performed  the 
most  incredible  feats  of  corporeal  strength  and  valour.* 

*  Thus,  we  are  gravely  informed  how  Godfrey,  with  a  single  blow 
of  his  falchion,  clave  a  Turk  in  twain  from  shoulder  to  hip.  The 
upper  half  of  the  miscreant  fell  into  the  Orontes ;  the  legs  kept  their 
scat,  and  were  borne  by  their  good  steed  into  the  city.  Nor  was 
this  the  oiJy  feat  of  the  hero.  At  one  stroke  of  his  sword,  he  slit  an 
infidel  down  from  the  top  of  the  head  to  the  saddle,  and  even  cut 
tluough  both  that  and  the  back-bone  of  the  horse.  Again,  after  the 
capture  of  Jerusalem,  he  satisfied  the  incredulity  of  a  noble  Saraccu, 


CAPTURE    OF    ANTIOCH.  125 

Of  the  infidels,  a  son  of  Baghasian,  many  other  emirs, 
and  two  thousand  warriors  of  inferior  degree,  fell  in 
this  sanguinary  flight;  of  the  Christians,  not  more 
than  half  that  number  were  slain ;  and  encouraged  by 
their  victory,  they  formed  and  successfully  accom- 
plished the  design  of  barring  the  egress  of  the  gar- 
rison from  the  two  gates  which  had  hitherto  been  left 
unblockaded,  by  the  construction  of  a  fortified  mound 
or"  intrenchment  opposite  to  each.  Tancred  and  the 
Count  of  Thoulouse  severally  undertook  the  ho- 
nourable duty  of  guarding  the  new  posts;  the  gar- 
rison of  Antioch  was  thenceforth  effectually  confined 
within  the  walls;  the  supplies  of  provisions  which 
their  brethren  had  hitherto  introduced  by  these  gates 
were  cut  off  and  diverted  to  the  refreshment  of  the 
Latins;  and  the  whole  surrounding  country  being 

who  had  heard  of  his  prowess,  by  sweeping  of  the  head  of  a  camel 
'with  his  sword  in  a  trice.  The  unbeliever  still  ascribing  more  virtue 
to  the  temper  of  the  blade  than  to  the  strength  of  the  arm  which 
wielded  it,  Godfrey  to  convince  him,  borrowed  his  own  weapon,  and 
with  that,  in  like  manner,  decapitated  a  second  camel.  These 
stories  are  not  related  by  some  one  obscure  fabler  only,  but  are 
avouched,  the  first  two  with  minute  particularity,  by  the  monk 
Robert,  (p.  50,)  and  by  Ralph  of  Caen,  (p.  404 ;)  and  all  confirmed 
by  so  dignified  an  authority  as  the  Archbishop  of  Tyre,  (p.  701,  770.) 
And  Malmsbury,  who  made  a  careful  collection  of  the  feats  of 
Godfrey,  adds  to  the  number  (p.  448)  the  slaying  of  a  lion  in 
single  combat  near  Antioch.  The  chroniclers  are  eager  in  ascribing 
to  Godfrey  as  great  a  superiority  in  bodily  strength  as  in  intellectual 
virtues  over  the  other  chieftains  of  the  war.  But  of  some  of  these 
leaders,  exploits  scarcely  less  astounding  are  recorded.  The  Duke 
»f  Normandy,  for  instance,  cut  through  the  head  and  shoulders  of  a 


126  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

now  in  unmolested  possession  of  the  besiegers,  abun- 
dance again  reigned  in  their  camp.* 

Still,  little  or  no  impression  had  been  made  upon  the 
defences  of  the  city  ;  seven  months  had  already  been 
ineffectually  consumed  in  the  siege;  and  the  council 
of  princes  was  disturbed  by  intelligence  that  the  Sul- 
tan of  Persia  was  collecting  a  large  army  for  the  relief 
of  the  garrison.  At  this  dangerous  crisis,  the  alliance 
of  an  apostate  and  a  traitor  served  the  cause  of  the  cru- 
saders m'ore  beneficially  than  their  arms.  Among  the 
Christian  population  of  Antioch,  was  a  man  of  noble 
birth,  but  unprincipled  and  sordid  character,  named 
Phirouz,  who,  abjuring  his  religion,  had  been  received 
into  the  Turkish  ranks,  and  intrusted  with  the  com- 
mand of  three  towers.  Stimulated  by  avarice  or  dis- 
affection from  the  service  which  he  had  embraced,  he 
opened  a  secret  correspondence  with  Boemond ;  and 
consented,  on  the  promise  of  a  large  reward,  to  betray 
his  post  to  the  besiegers.  The  Norman  made  the  use 
of  this  opening,  which  was  to  be  expected  from  his 
selfish  and  intriguing  spirit.  He  declared  to  the 
council  of  his  compeers  his  possession  of  a  plan  for 
the  surprise  of  the  place  ;  but,  before  he  would  reveal 
its  nature,  claimed  the  principality  of  Antioch  for 

Turk  at  a  blow ;  and  Ralph  of  Caen  was  prevented  from  detailing 
the  stupendous  deeds  of  Tancred  only  by  the  silence  which  the 
nioJesty  of  that  hero  had  imposed  on  his  esquire. 

*  Robert,  p.  49-53.  Raymond,  p.  147.  Baldric.  104-107. 
Albert,  p.  237-243.  Guibert,  p.  503-506.  Willermus  Tyr.  p. 
695-703. 


CAPTURE    OF    ANTIOCH.  127 

himself  as  the  just  recompense  of  his  successful  merit 
The  ungenerous  preference  of  his  own  interest  to  the 
common  cause  of  the  Crusade,  which  was  apparent 
through  this  reservation,  disgusted ,  those  among  his 
confederates  who  were  actuated  by  loftier  motives  of 
conduct  ;*  but  it  especially  excited  less  dignified  and 
splenetic  feelings  in  the  breast  of  the  Count  of  Thou- 
louse,  who  entertained  views  similar  to  his  own,  and 
regarded  his  pretensions  with  the  hatred  of  a  rival. 
His  stipulation  was,  therefore,  at  first  indignantly  re- 
jected ;  but  the  increasing  urgency  of  the  danger  with 
which  the  army  was  menaced  by  the  approach  of  the 


*  Even  the  good  Godfrey  himself,  usually  so  ready  to  sacrifice  his 
own  interests  and  feelings  to  the  advancement  of  the  sacred  cause, 
could  not  escape  a  collision  with  the  selfish  meanness  of  Boemond ; 
nor  was  his  own  magnanimity  always  proof  against  the  sense  of  a 
petty  injury.  -This  is  amusingly  shown  in  a  story  related  by  Albert 
of  Aix>  (p.  242.)  A  superb  Turkish  pavilion,  which  the  Prince  of 
Edessa  had  captured  and  sent  as  a  present  to  his  brother  Godfrey,  was 
intercepted  by  an  Armenian  chieftain,  and  despatched  a's  his  own 
gift  to  Boemond.  Godfrey,  accompanied  by  his  friend,  the  Count 
of  Flanders,  paid  an  angry  visit  to  the  quarters  of  Boemond  to  de- 
mand the  restitution  of  the  tent.  The  covetous  Norman  refused 
compliance;  and  Godfrey  complained  to  the  council  of  princes. 
Boemond  was  at  last  compelled  to  deliver  up  the  disputed  property  j 
but  not  before,  as  Mr.  Mills  has  pithily  observed,  (Hist,  of  the  Cru- 
sades, vol.  i.  189,)  a  "piece  of  silk  excited  the  passions  of  thou- 
sands of  men  who  had  despised  all  worldly  regards,  and  had  left 
Europe  in  order  to  die  in  Asia."  The  whole  scene  may  recall  to  the 
reader's  mind  some  of  the  squabbles  of  the  Homeric  heroes ;  but  the 
impatience  of  Godfrey  in  endangering  the  harmony  of  the  camp  for 
BO  frivolous  a  cause,  is  at  variance  with  the  dignified  forbearance  of 
his  general  conduct. 


128  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

Turkish  succours,  and  the  necessity  of  either  ac- 
quiring possession  of  the  city  or  of  suspending  the 
siege  before  their  arrival,  prevailed  over  the  reluc- 
tance of  the  council  to  comply  with  the  extortionate 
demand.  The  Count  of  Thoulouse  was  compelled  by 
his  brother  chieftains  to  stifle  his  jealousy  and  aban- 
don his  opposition ;  and  Boemond  received  the  solemn 
pledge  of  all  the  princes  that,  if  Antioch  were  gained 
by  his  means,  he  should  be  invested  with  its  sove- 
reignty.* 

Upon  this  promise,  the  crafty  Norman  disclosed  his 
project,  and  prepared  its  accomplishment.  In  the 
dead  of  night,  he  led  his  own  troops  to  the  base  of  the 
towers,  where  Phirouz  held  his  watch ;  by  the  traitoi 
and  some  associates  of  his  plot,  rope-ladders  were 
lowered ;  and  the  future  Prince  of  Antioch,  to  encou- 
rage his  wavering  followers,  was  himself  the  first  man 
who  ascended  the  walls.  The  escalade  was  effected 
in  safety ;  the  Turkish  guards  of  several  neighbouring 
towers  were  slain  before  they  could  give  the  alarm ; 
and  the  gates  of  the  city  were  opened  to  the  whole 
crusading  host.  A  horrid  and  indiscriminate  slaugh- 
ter of  the  infidel  garrison  and  the  Christian  inhabit- 
ants ensued ;  until  the  crusaders  had  exhausted  the 
first  burst  of  savage  fury,  roused  by  the  remembrance 
of  their  own  sufferings  in  the  siege,  and  the  obstinacy 

*  Robert,  p.  54.  Albert,  p.  241.  Radulph.  p.  308,  309.  Bal- 
dric, p.  108,  109.  Guibert,  p.  5C9,  510.  Willermus  Tyr.  p.  704- 
707. 


CAPTURE    OF    ANTIOCH. 


120 


of  the  lengthened  defence.  [3d  of  June,  1098.]  The 
remains  of  the  Christian  population  were  then  pn> 
tected  from  further  outrage  ;  but  the  massacre  of  the 
Turks  was  still  pursued  with  relentless  vengeance; 
and  the  fugitives  who  escaped  beyond  the  walls  were 
immediately  intercepted  and  slaughtered  by  the  Latin 
detachments  and  Syrian  Christians  who  held  the  sur- 
rounding plains.  Such  was  the  fate  of  the  gallant  ve- 
teran Baghasian  himself;  but  numbers  of  the  garrison 
effected  their  retreat  into  the  citadel ;  and,  closing 
its  gates  before  the  victors  bethought  themselves  of 
completing  their  success,  the  refugees  there  despe- 
rately maintained  a  protracted  resistance.* 

*  Robert,  p.  55.     Albert,  p.  245-247.     Eadulph.  p.  308,  309. 
Baldric.  109-112.     Guibert,  p.  511.    Willerm»«  Tyr.  p,  708-712. 


Robert  of  Normandy  slaying  the  Turk. 
9 


130 


THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 


SECTION    IX. 


DEFENCE  OF  ANTIOCH   BY  THE   CRUSADERS. 


HE  divided  state  of  the  Moham- 
medan world  had  hitherto -fa- 
voured the  progress  of  the  Cru- 
sade. The  dismemberment  of 
the  dominions  of  Malek  Shah 
had  fatally  weakened  the  gene- 
ral power  of  the  Turkish  Em- 
pire. The  monarchs  of  Persia 
remained  the  nominal  chiefs  of 
the  Seljukian  race ;  but  the 
Sultan  of  Roum  had  been  unassisted  in  his  struggle 
to  arrest  the  invasion  of  the  Latins  by  any  succour 
from  that  kindred  dynasty;  the  numerous  emirs  of 
Syria,  Armenia,  and  Mesopotamia  were  disunited 


DEFENCE    OF    ANTIOCH.  131 

among  themselves,  and  agreed  only  in  the  effort  to 
throw  off  their  dependence  on  the  court  of  Ispahan ; 
and  the  Fatimite  or  Ommiadan  princes  of  Egypt  were 
the  natural  enemies  of  the  whole  Turkish  nation,  as 
the  disciples,  protectors,  and  tyrants  of  their  fallen 
rivals,  the  Abassidan  Khalifs  of  Bagdad.  Before  the 
arrival  of  the  crusaders  in  Asia,  the  Khalif  of  Egypt, 
availing  himself  of  the  distractions  of  the  Seljukian 
Empire  to  recover  the  ancient  possessions  of  his  house, 
had  already  despatched  an  army  into  Palestine,  and 
succeeded  in  wresting  Jerusalem  itself  and  other  places 
from  their  Turkish  conquerors.*  When,  therefore, 
the  strange  rumour  reached  Cairo  of  the  Christian 
invasion  of  Asia,  the  overthrow  of  the  Sultan  of 
Bourn,  and  the  advance  of  the  crusading  myriads  into 
Syria,  the  khalif  endeavoured,  by  sending  an, embassy 
to  their  camp  before  Antioch,  to  discover  their  further 
designs,  to  ascertain  their  force,  and,  perhaps,  to  culti- 
vate their  alliance  against  a  common  enemy.  It  is 
not  improbable  that  the  news  of  their  previous  suc- 
cesses, as  tending  to  precipitate  the  fall  of  the  Turkish 
power,  was  grateful  to  the  Egyptian  Prince ;  and  fie 
is  said,  by  one  authority,  to  have  encouraged  their 
prosecution  of  the  siege  of  Antioch,  and  even  to  have 
offered  his  co-operation.  His  envoys  also  expressed 
his  readiness  to  admit  the  Christian  pilgrims  to  wor- 
ship in  peace  at  Jerusalem ;  but  this  proposal  was 

*  De  Guigncs,  vol.  i.  249. 


132  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

haughtily  rejected  by  the  leaders  of  the  Crusade,  who 
replied  that  the  Holy  Sepulchre  was  the  lawful  heri- 
tage of  Christendom  alone,  and  declared  their  resolu- 
tion, by  the  divine  aid,  to  recover  and  preserve  it  from 
further  profanation  by  infidels  of  whatever  race.  So 
bold  and  unreserved  an  avowal  of  their  hostile  pur- 
pose was  not  calculated  to  secure  the  friendship  or  to 
allay  the  jealousy  of  the  khalif.  The  negotiations 
which  he  had  opened  were  not,  indeed,  broken  off, 
and  he  accepted  an  embassy  from  v  the  crusaders  ;  but 
his  conduct  in  the  vicissitudes  of  the  .siege  alternately 
betrayed  his  enmity  and  his  fears.  When  he  heard 
of  the  destruction  with  which  the  besiegers  were 
threatened  by  famine  and  pestilence,  he  imprisoned 
their  envoys:  when  their  princes  despatched  the 
heads  of  the  slaughtered  Turkish  emirs  to  Cairo  as 
the  trophies  of  victory,  he  released  the  ambassadors 
and  loaded  them  with  presents  for  the  principal  lead- 
ers of  the  Crusade.* 

The  report  of  the  danger  of  Antioch  was  received 
with  other  emotions  by  the  Sultan  of  Persia ;  and  the 
alarming  progress  of  the  Christian  arms  had  the  effect 
of  exciting  the  Turkish  states  into  a  transient  union' 
against  the  invaders.  From  the  banks  of  the  Eu- 
phrates and  the  Tigris,  twenty-eight  powerful  emirs 
with  their  swarms  of  cavalry  obeyed  the  summons 
of  the  sultan  to  range  themselves  under  the  standard 

*  Robert,  p.  49-52.     Albert,  p.  236-237.     Raymond,  p.  146, 
WUlermus  Tyr.  p.  696. 


DEFENCE     OF    ANTIOCH.  133 

of  their  prophet,  and  to  avenge  the  cause  of  theii 
faith  and  nation.  The  supreme  command  was  as- 
signed to  Kerboga,  Prince  of  Mosul  on  the  Tigris,  as 
the  lieutenant  of  the  Persian  monarch ;  he  was  joined 
by  Kilidge  Arslan,  the  Sultan  of  Roum,  with  the 
remains  of  his  forces ;  and  the  whole  host,  which  some 
of  the  Latin  writers  are  contented  to  describe  as  in- 
numerable,* is  estimated  by  others  at  two,  three,  or 
even  four  hundred  thousand  cavalry.-}*  The  first  ope- 
rations of  this  overwhelming  multitude  were  directed 
against  the  new  Christian  Principality  beyond  the 
Euphrates;  but  the  undaunted  heroism  with  which 
Baldwin  defended  his  capital,  delayed  their  advance 
until  the  fall  of  Antioch ;  and  the  startling  intelli- 
gence of  that  disastrous  event  roused  Kerboga  to 
break  up  from  the  unsuccessful  siege  of  Edessa,  and 
hasten  his  march  to  the  relief  of  the  Syrian  citadel.J 

On  the  approach  of  his  host  toward  Antioch,  the 
leaders  of  the  Crusade  withdrew  their  diminished 
forces  within  the  defences  of  the  city;  and  the  Turk- 
ish cavalry,  filling  all  the  surrounding  plains,  re- 
inforced the  garrison  of  the  citadel,  enclosed  the 
Latins  in  their  position,  and  cut  off  all  their  com- 
munications with  the  sea-coast  and  exterior  country. 


*  Robert,  p.  56.  Fulcher.  p.  392.  Guibert,  p.  512.  Wilier- 
mus  Tyr.  p.  714. 

f  Albert,  p.  242,  and  Radulphus,  p.  319,  give  the  lowest  and 
highest  estimate  in  the  text. 

J  Albert,  p.  243.     Baldric,  p  112.     Guibert,  p.  502, 


134  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

By  these  measures,  the  crusaders,  now  besieged  in 
their  turn,  were  immediately  subjected  to  a  second 
and  far  more  grievous  famine  than  that  which  they 
had  endured  in  the  preceding  winter.  A  repetition 
of  the  same  narrative  of  distress,  with  many  aggra- 
vated horrors,  would  be  equally  revolting  and  pro- 
fitless; and  the  reader  will  gladly  be  spared  the 
shocking  and  loathsome  details  of  misery  which  re- 
duced a  famishing  host  to  satiate  the  cravings  of 
hunger  with  leaves  and  weeds,  with  the  hides  of 
animals,  and  the  old  leather  of  belts  and  harness,  to 
devour  greedily  the  vilest  offal  of  slaughter-houses 
and  sewers,  and  even  to  prey  upon  human  flesh. 
For  five  and  twenty  days,  the  ravening  and  perishing 
multitudes  suffered  every  frightful  extremity  of  want 
which  language  may  paint,  or  imagination  conceive ; 
the  princely,  the  noble,  and  the  fair  were  exposed  to 
privations  only  less  horrid  in  their  intensity  than 
those  of  the  inferior  herd  of  soldiery  and  camp 
followers :  and  the  whole  host  was  stricken  with  one 
universal  sentiment  of  weakness  and  despondency. 
Desertions  again  became  numerous ;  and  the  fugitives, 
wrio,  letting  themselves  down  by  ropes  at  night  from 
the  walls,  were  fortunate  enough  to  escape  the  cime- 
ters  of  the  Turks,  spread  their  dismal  tale  of  the 
impending  ruin  of  the  crusading  cause  throughout  the 
few  Christian  establishments  on  the  sea-coasts  and  in 
the  interior,  in  which  they  could  find  refuge.  Among 
these  apostates  to  their  vows  were  many  persons  of 


DEFENCE    OF    ANTIOCH.  135 

distinction,  including  that  Lord  of  Melun,  "William 
the  Carpenter,  who  had  lately  so  publicly  renewed  his 
devotional  oaths;  and  the  numerous  companions  of 
his  shame  are  consigned  to  indignant  oblivion  by  one 
historian,  only  under  the  conviction  that  their  un- 
worthy names  were  eternally  blotted  from  the  Book 
of  Life.* 

The  conduct  of  the  fugitives  was,  indeed,  calculated 
to  extinguish  the  faint  gleam  of  hope  which  the  cru- 
saders might  have  felt  in  the  knowledge  that  the 
Byzantine  emperor  was  now  on  his  march  with  a 
large  army  through  Asia  Minor  to  support  their  ope- 
rations, and  claim  the  paramount  sovereignty  of  their 
conquests.  The  pusillanimous  Count  of  Chartres, 
who  had  hitherto  lingered  at  Alexandretta,  was  so 
terrified  by  the  wretched  aspect  and  more  deplorable 
report  of  the  deserters  who  had  reached  his  quarters, 
that  he  immediately  continued  his  retreat ;  and  meet- 
ing Alexius  in  Phrygia,  communicated  the  panic  to 
that  monarch.  Though  the  emperor  had  been  joined, 
in  addition  to  his  own  forces,  by  numerous  squadrons 
of  fresh  crusaders  from  Europe,  who  were  still  eager  to 
advance  to  the  relief  of  their  confederates  at  Antioch, 
the  suggestions  of  his  selfish  policy,  or  the  baser 
influence  of  fear,  made  him  resolve  not  to  risk  his 
resources  or  the  safety  of  his  person  for  the  deliver- 

*  Robert,  p.  57-59.  Albert,  p.  248-251.  Kaymond,  p.  153. 
Baldric,  p.  113-117.  Guibert;  p.  512-517.  Willermus  Tyr.  p. 
714-717. 


136  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

ance  of  his  Latin  allies;  and,  abandoning  them  tc 
their  fate,  in  despite  of  the  remonstrances  and  re- 
proaches of  their  countrymen  in  his  camp,  he  enforced 
a  general  retreat  upon  Constantinople.*  The  evil 
tidings  of  his  retrogade  movement  were  not  slow  in 
reaching  the  crusaders  at  Antioch ;  and  the  first  burst 
of  fury  at  his  treacherous  or  cowardly  desertion  of  his 
engagements  was  succeeded  by  a  general  apathy  of 
hopeless  resignation  or  sullen  despair.  Neither  the 
dread  of  the  enemy,  nor  the  threat  of  punishment, 
could  rouse  the  soldiery  to  the  requisite  exertions  for 
the  common  defence;  they  shut  themselves  up  in 
gloomy  expectation  of  death;  and  in  one  quarter  of 
Antioch  it  was  necessary  to  fire  the  houses  over  their 
heads  before  they  could  be  driven  out  to  man  the 
ramparts.f 

Amid  this  prostration  of  mental  and  corporeal 
energies,  which  levelled  the  proud  distinctions  of 
spirit  between  the  gallant  chivalry  and  the  meaner 
multitude  of  the  crusading  host,  the  names  of  five 
only  of  the  leaders  of  the  war  deserved  the  honour- 
able record  of  its  chroniclers,  by  their  unshaken  con- 
stancy and  courage:  Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  Raymond 
of  Thoulouse,  the  Papal  Legate  Adhemar  of  Puy, 
Boemond  and  Tancred.  The  fortitude  of  Godfrey 
was  sustained  by  the  purest  strength  of  a  religious 

*  Robert,  p.  60.     Albert,  p.  253.     Baldric,  p.  119      Anna  Com. 
nena,  p.  255-257.     Willermus  Tyr.  p.  718-720. 
f  Albert,  p.  253.     Guibert,  p.  517.     Willermua  Tyr.  p.  720. 


DEFENCE    OF    ANTIOCH.  137 

mind;  that  of  the  count  and  bishop  might  be  inspired 
by  the  fiercer  confidence  of  fanatical  zeal ;  the  vault- 
ing ambition  and  cupidity  of  Boemond  were  inex- 
tinguishable save  with  life ;  and  in  the  generous  soul 
of  Tancred,  the  love  of  glory  still  shone  through  the 
darkest  adversity  with  a  steady  and  unfading  light. 
But  the  example,  the  exhortations,  and  the  valorous 
resolves  of  these  master-spirits  of  their  cause,  would 
have  proved  alike  ineffectual  to  reanimate  the  hopes 
and  efforts  of  their  desponding  confederates  and  fol- 
lowers, if  they  had  not  invoked  the  all-powerful  aid 
of  superstition.  When  every  prospect  of  earthly 
succour  had  vanished,  it  required  the  belief  of  a 
special  interposition  of  Heaven  in  their  behalf  to  re- 
kindle the  expiring  fanaticism  of  the  multitude ;  and 
the  character  of  the  Count  of  Thoulouse,  as  well  as 
his  share  in  promoting  the  popular  delusion,  may  in- 
differently justify  the  presumption  that  he  was  the 
original  mover,  or  the  willing  dupe  of  a  pretended 
revelation. 

In  the  Provengal  division  of  the  crusaders,  was  a 
priest  of  Marseilles,  Peter  Barthelemy  by  name,  who, 
presenting  himself  before  the  council  of  princes,  de- 
clared how  St.  Andrew  had  shown  him  in  a  vision, 
that  the  steel  head  of  the  very  lance  which  had 
pierced  the  side  of  the  crucified  Redeemer  might  bo 
found  buried  beneath  the  high  altar  in  the  Church  of 
St.  Peter  at  Antioch ;  that  the  .Count  of  Thoulouse 
was  appointed  to  bear  the  sacred  weapon  against 


138  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

infidel  enemy ;  and  that  its  mystic  presence  in  the 
battle  should  penetrate  the  hearts  of  the  unbelievers, 
and  insure  a  complete  victory  to  the  people  of  God. 
The  minds  of  the  crusaders  had  been  prepared  for  the 
reception  of  this  tale,  and,  perhaps,  the  expedient 
itself  had  been  suggested  by  rumours  of  several  pre- 
vious apparitions  of  the  saints  both  to  clerical  and  lay 
individuals  in  the  army,  all  leading  to  the  expectation 
that  some  visible  act  of  Almighty  favour  for  their 
deliverance  was  at  hand.  If  the  Count  of  Thoulouse 
was  not  privy  to  the  original  imposture,  he,  at  least, 
eagerly  lent  his  countenance  to  its  success  ;  the  policy 
or  conviction  of  the  other  chiefs  gladly  accepted  the 
tale;  and  Raymond  himself,  with  his  chaplain  and  ten 
select  companions,  were  appointed  to  search  for  the 
sacred  relic.  Two  days'  of  solemn  preparation  were 
spent  by  the  whole  army  in  religious  exercises ;  and 
early  on  the  third  the  princes,  attended  by  the  clergy 
and  lay  multitude,  went  in  procession  to  the  Church 
of  St.  Peter.  The  doors  were  closed  against  the  im- 
patient crowd :  and  relays  of  workmen  dug  until 
nightfall  to  the  depth  of  twelve  feet  under  the  high 
altar,  without  discovering  the  promised  instrument  of 
victory.  But,  as  soon  as  the  increasing  darkness 
favoured  the  deception,  Peter  Barthelemy  himself 
descended  into  the  pit,  and,  after  a  plausible  delay, 
exclaimed  that  he  had  found  the  precious  object  of 
their  search.  The  steel  head  of  a  lance  was  ther 
brought  up  from  the  excavation,  and  reverently 


DEFENCE    OF    ANTIOCH.  139 

played  in  a  web  of  cloth  of  gold  to  the  enraptured 
gaze  of  the  multitude.  All  previous  incredulity  was 
drowned  in  a  general  burst  of  superstitious  enthusi- 
asm ;  and  the  devout  and  firm  assurance  of  approach- 
ing victory  succeeded  with  wonderful  rapidity  to  the 
abject  despair  with  which  the  starving  host  had  pre- 
viously been  overwhelmed.* 

The  first  measure  by  which  the  leaders  of  the  Cru- 
sade showed  the  sincerity  of  their  renovated  hopes, 
affords  a  curious  picture  of  fanatical  confidence.  It 
was  charitably  resolved  to  offer  the  infidels  one  op- 
portunity of  escape  from  the  destruction  to  which 
they  were  otherwise  doomed,  in  the  alternative  of 
withdrawing  altogether  from  the  sacred  land  of  Syria, 
or  declaring  their  conversion  to  the  Christian  faith. 
The  ambassador  selected  to  convey  these  proposals  to 
the  camp  of  Kerboga  was  Peter  the  Hermit ;  and  the 
astonishment,  rage,  and  contempt  which  their  nature 
provoked,  were,  if  possible,  increased  by  the  arrogant 
deportment  and  language  of  the  fanatic.  The  ebulli- 
tion of  furious  indignation  which  prompted  the  reply 
of  the  Emir  will  excite  less  of  our  surprise  than  the 
forbearance  which  enabled  a  Turkish  barbarian  to- 
respect  the  character  of  an  ambassador,  and  to  dismiss 
in  safety  the  bearer  of  a  message  so  insulting  to  his 
pride  and  faith.  The  defiance  of  the  Christians  was 

*  Robert,  p.  60-62.  Albert,  p.  253,  -254.  Raymond,  p.  150. 
151.  Radulphus,  p.  316,  317.  Baldric,  p.  119.  Fulcher.  p.  391- 
393.  Guibert,  p.  517-520.  Willermus  Tyr.  p.  721. 


140  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

hurled  back  upon  them ;  and  the  Hermit  was  fiercely 
admonished  that  there  remained  for  them  the  choice 
only  between  submission  to  the  law  of  Mohammed, 
or  servitude  and  death.* 

On  this  reply,  the  crusaders  entertained  no  furthei 
doubt  that  the  vengeance  of  Heaven  had  delivered 
the  whole  obstinate  host  of  the  infidels  into  their 
hands.  But  the  Latin  chieftains,  with  that  admixture 
of  politic  wisdom  which  generally  tempered  their 
fanaticism,  spared  no  exertion  to  excite  the  religious 
ardour,  and  refresh  the  physical  strength  of  their  fol- 
lowers for  the  approaching  combat.  The  horses  of 
their  cavalry,  now  reduced  from  seventy  thousand  to 
no  more  than  two  hundred  in  number,  were  carefully 
fed  on  the  last  remains  of  their  provender ;  the  lead- 
ers and  soldiery  freely  shared  with  each  other  their 
last  meal ;  their  rusted  arms  were  whetted  anew  with 
grim  desperation ;  and  the  whole  army  betook  them- 
selves to  prayer,  made  confession  of  their  sins,  and 
received  the  absolution  of  the  sacrament.  Thus 
nerved  in  body  and  mind,  the  host  was  arrayed,  in 
honour  of  the  apostolic  number,  in  twelve  divisions ; 
the  dawn  of  the  festival  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  was 
chosen  for  the  reopening  of  the  gates  of  Antioch ;  and, 
preceded  by  a  body  of  the  clergy  chanting  a  psalm, 
the  army  issued  from  t4ie  city  and  formed  in  order  of 
battle  on  the  plain. 

*  Robert,  p.  62.     Guibert,  p.  520.     Willoniius  Tyr.  [   722. 


DEFENCE    OF    ANTIOCH.  141 

Adhemar,  the  Bishop  of  Puy,  headed  the  fourth 
division,  the  most  honourable,  because  it  carried  the 
holy  lance.  He  walked  at  its  head,  clothed  in  the 
robes  of  a  pontiff,  and  surrounded  by  the  symbols  of 
religion  and  war.  The  venerable  prelate,  pausing 
before  the  bridge  of  the  Orontes,  addressed  a  pathetic 
discourse  to  the  soldiers  of  the  cross,  blessing  them, 
and  promised  the  succour  and  recompense  of  Heaven. 
All  the  army  shouted  their  approbation  and  assent. 

It  is  singular  that  the  Count  of  Thoulouse,  the  des- 
tined bearer  of  the  holy  lance,  was  left  within  the 
walls  with  a  detachment  of  the  Provengals  to  watch 
the  citadel ;  but  his  place  was  supplied  by  the  martial 
Legate  who,  in  complete  armour,  bore  aloft  the  sacred 
weapon  at  the  head  of  one  division;  and  accompanied 
its  display  to  the  eyes  of  the  whole  host  with  the 
thrilling  exhortation  to  fight  that  day  as  became  the 
chosen  champions  of  Heaven.  Of  the  other  eleven 
divisions,  one,  the  vanguard,  was  led  by  the  Count  of 
Vermandois,  as  bearer  of  the  papal  standard;  nine 
respectively  by  Godfrey,  the  two  Roberts,  Tancred, 
and  the  other  chieftains  of  renown ;  and  the  reserve 
was  intrusted  to  Boemond. 

The  distress  and  consequent  weakness  of  the  Chris- 
tians had  been  so  well  known  in  the  Turkish  camp, 
ihat  Kerboga,  notwithstanding  their  late  haughty  em- 
bassy, w^as  lulled  into  a  delusive  security  that  their 
necessities  must  compel  them  to  a  speedy  submission; 
and  he  was  so  little  prepared  for  their  assault,  thai 


142  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

the  foremost  corps  of  his  army  was  cut  to  pieces  before 
the  main  body  could  hasten  to  support  it.  But  as 
soon  as  the  Turks  recovered  from  their  consternation, 
they  fell  impetuously  upon  the  advancing  line  of 
Christians ;  and  the  brave  Sultan  of  Nice,  wheeling 
round  his  flank,  gained  the  rear  of  the  reserve  under 
Boemond,  and  began  to  inflict  a  bloody  vengeance  for 
the  rout  of  Dorylseum.  Thus  enveloped  in  a  cloud  of 
Tartar  cavalry,  the  extrication  of  the  crusading  army 
from  imminent  peril  is,  as  usual,  marvellously  referred 
to  the  personal  prowess  of  its  chiefs;  and  eulogies  of 
their  valour  supply  the  place  of  more  intelligible 
details.  In  the  confused  pictures  of  the  chroniclers, 
and  perhaps  in  the  disorderly  tactics  of  the  age,  it  is 
a  hopeless  attempt  to  follow  the  fluctuating  tide  of 
battle,  or  discern  the  real  causes  of  victory.  Yet, 
with  every  allowance  for  stupendous  deeds  of  heroism 
in  the  Europeans,  and  enormous  exaggeration  in  the 
reported  numbers  of  the  Asiatics,  for  the  desperation 
of  one  army  and  the  surprise  of  the  other,  the  asto- 
nishing issue  of  the  struggle  can  only  be  explained  by 
the  supposition  of  some  gross  misconduct  or  fatal  dis- 
sension among  the  Moslem  leaders.  If  we  are  to 
believe  the  narrative  of  their  own  chroniclers,  two 
hundred  Latin  'horsemen,  supported  by  the  unwieldy 
array  of  dismounted  knights  and  men-at-arms,  charged, 
routed,  and  put  to  flight  the  myriads  of  Turkish 
cavalry ;  the  pursuit  was  as  sanguinary  as  the  combat 
had  been  obstinate;  and  the  whole  immense  host, 


DEFENCE    OF    ANTIOOH.  143 

which  had  been  permitted  for  twenty-five  days  to  hold 
the  crusaders  besieged  in  famine  and  despair  within  the 
walls  of  Antioch,  was  suddenly  destroyed  or  dissipated 
in  a  single  morning.  While  the  victory  yet  hung  in 
suspense,  the  fanatical  ardour  of  the  crusaders  was 
assisted  by  a  new  accident  or  stratagem.  Several 
figures  of  horsemen  in  bright  armour  became  visible 
on  the  adjacent  hills;  and  the  papal  legate  pointing 
them  out  as  the  holy  martyrs  St.  George,  St.  Maurice, 
and  St.  Theodore,  bade  the  army,  with  a  loud  voice, 
behold  the  promised  succour  of  Heaven.  Responsive 
shouts  of  "  It  is  the  will  of  God,"  burst  from  the  cru- 
sading ranks ;  and  the  last  triumphant  charge  was  in- 
spired by  the  imaginary  presence  and  aid  of  these  ce- 
lestial champions.* 


*  Robert,  p.  63-66.  Albert,  p.  254-258.  Raymond,  p.  154, 155. 
Baldric,  p.  120-122.  Fulcher.  p.  393-395.  Guibert,  p.  520-523, 
Willermus  Tyr.  p.  723-726. 

A  belief  in  the  reality  of  the  apparition  and  aid  of  the  three  celes- 
tial warriors  seems  to  have  been  universal  among  the  crusaders.  But 
their  credulity  with  regard  to  the  discovery  of  the  holy  lance  was  less 
general  or  lasting.  The  archbishops  JBaldric  and  William  of  Tyre, 
indeed,  with  several  of  the  other  chroniclers,  betray  no  distrust  of 
the  genuineness  both  of  the  vision  and  the  relic;  but  political  jealousy 
overcame  the  superstition,  and  sharpened  the  intellect  of  some  of  the 
princes  and  their  adherents;  and  while  Kaymond  des  Agiles,  the 
chaplain  of  the  Count  of  Thoulouse,  is  loud  in  maintaining  the  authen- 
ticity of  a  miracle  of  which  his  patron  was  the  appointed  instrument, 
"Ralph  of  Caen,  in  the  opposite  interest  of  Tancred  and  Boemond, 
boldly  exposes  the  fraud.  Fulk  of  Chartres  also  evinces  more  than 
one  suspicion  of  the  imposture.  The  sequel  of  the  history  is  curious 
After  the  victory  .of  Antioch,  the  efforts  of  the  Count  of  Thoulouse 


144  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

4 

The  defeat  and  dispersion  of  the  host  of  Kerboga 
was  immediately  followed  by  the  capitulation  of  the 
citadel  of  Antioch.  By  the  recovered  command  of  the 
surrounding  territory,  the  crusaders  were  enabled  for  a 
time  to  relieve  their  wants  with  plentiful  supplies  of 
provisions;  and  the  captured  horses  of  the  Turks 
served  to  remount  the  cavalry  of  the  victors.  The 
general  joy  was  interrupted  only  by  the  obstinate 
ambition  and  quarrelsome  temper  of  the  Count  of 
Thoulouse,  who,  still  prosecuting  his  rivalry  against 
the  stipulated  claims  of  Boemond  to  the  sovereignty 
of  Antioch,  availed  himself  of  the  absence  of  that 
prince,  and  the  duty  with  which  he  had  been  intrusted 
of  watching  the  citadel,  to  hoist  his  own  standard  on 
the  walls.  He  was  again  compelled  by  the  other 
confederate  chieftains  to  forego  his  pretensions ;  and 
Boemond  was  formally  installed  in  his  new  princi- 
pality: but  the  rankling  jealousy  of  the  Provencal 
continued  not  the  less  to  disturb  the  harmony  of  the 
common  cause,  and  to  embarrass  the  ulterior  operations 


and  his  Provencals  to  perpetuate  a  delusion  which  conferred  a  sort 
of  spiritual  superiority  upon  the  chosen  guardians  of  the  sacred  lance, 
provoked  the  envious  rivalry  of  Boemond  and  his  friends  to  proclaim 
their  disbelief.  The  example  of  their  skepticism  shook  the  faith  of 
the  whole  army;  and  to  maintain  the  truth  of  the  revelation,  Peter 
Barthelemy,  as  its  original  publisher,  was  rashly  induced  to  appeal 
to  the  judgment  of  Heaven  by  the  fiery  ordeal.  Two  burning  piles 
being  prepared  with  a  narrow  path  between  them,  the  wretched  im- 
postor, or  fanatic,  rushed  through  the  flames,  and  was  so  dreadfully 
burned  on  his  passage  that  he  expired  on  the  next  day. 


DEFENCE    OF    ANTIOCH.  145 

of  the  Crusade.  In  the  council  of  princes,  discord, 
desertion,  and  the  selfish  pursuit  of  private  interests, 
now  succeeded  to  the  unity  of  purpose,  which  was 
originally  produced  by  devotional  feelings,  and  had 
been  supported  by  the  pressure  of  imminent  danger. 
The  resentment  which  the  crusaders  cherished  toward 
the  Greek  Emperor  for  his  failure  of  succour  in  their 
hour  of  need,  was  vented  in  an  embassy  of  remonstrance 
and  reproach ;  and  the  great  Count  of  Vermandois 
being  selected  for  this  mission,  took  advantage  of  the 
opportunity,  on  his  arrival  at  Constantinople,  to  escape 
the  further  perils  and  privations  of  the  Crusade  by 
returning  to  France.*  Baldwin  and  Boemond  were 
wholly  engrossed  in  securing  the  establishment  and 
extension  of  their  new  states  of  Edessa  and  Antioch : 
the  envious  ambition  of  the  Count  of  Thoulouse  led 
him  to  imitate  their  example  by  undertaking  the 
abortive  conquest  of  some  Syrian  towns ;  the  death  of 
the  papal  legate,  Adhemar,  shortly  deprived  the  cru- 
sading cause  of  one  of  its  most  popular  and  zealous 
supporters,  and  most  skilful  and  politic  counsellors; 
and  even  the  pious  Godfrey  himself  suffered  his  ardour 
for  the  deliverance  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  to  be  sus- 

*  It  is  a  remarkable  proof  of  the  disgrace  which,  in  the  chivalric 
ideas  of  the  age,  attended  such  an  abandonment  of  the  crusading 
vow,  that  both  the-  Counts  of  Vermandois  and  Chartres  found  in 
their  high  rank  no  exemption  from  contempt  and  obloquy ;  and  to  re- 
deem their  fame  they  were  compelled  to  undertake  a  second  expedi- 
tion to  Palestine,  in  which,  as  we  shall  hereafter  observe,  they  were 
both  slain. 

10 


146  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

pended  by  the  temptation  of  gratifying  his  troops  with 
the  more  accessible  spoils  of  adjacent  districts.* 

The  delays  thus  generated  by  disunion  and  di- 
versity of  objects  among  the  leaders  of  the  Crusade 
were  not  without  some  plausible  pretexts :  such  as 
the  necessity  of  reposing  and  refreshing  the  army 

after    the    fatigues   and   distresses    of   the   siege   at 

KM 
Antioch;    the   difficulty  of  advancing   to  Jerusalem 

-through  the  intervening  desert  during  the  drought  of 
a  Syrian  summer;  and  the  prudence  of  consolidating 
the  dominion  which  had  already  been  won,  that  the 
arduous  conquest  of  the  Holy  City  itself  might  be  the 
more  surely  effected.  But  the  losses  and  calamities 
which  flowed  from  division  and  inaction,  far  out- 
weighed any  attendant  advantages.  Numbers  of  the 
bravest  knights  and  best  soldiers  were  seduced  from 
the  general  service  of  the  Crusade  by  the  prospect  of 
a  profitable  establishment  in  the  new  Christian  States; 
many  gallant  lives  were  consumed  in  the  profitless  or 
unsuccessful  assaults  of  detached  corps  upon  the 
Turkish  garrisons ;  and  the  usual  improvidence  of  the 
crusaders  occasioned  a  third  famine  and  consequent 
pestilence,  the  combined  effects  of  which  were  so  ter- 
rific that  no  fewer  than  one  hundred  thousand  persons 
are  declared  to  have  perished.* 

*Albert.  p.  260-263.  Baldric,  p.  122, 123.  Fulcher.  p.  394,  395. 
Guibert,  p.  525.  Willermus  Tyr.  p.  729-732. 

•j-  The  practices  to  which  the  multitude  were  driven  by  hunger  are 
almost  too  horrible  for  belief ;  yet  the  evidence  afforded  by  chroniclers 
contemporary  with,  and  many  of  them  eye-witnesses  to  the  circum- 


DEFENCE    OF    ANTIOCH.  147 

The  ravages  of  this  plague  were  assisted  by  the 
previous  excesses  in  which  the  whole  host  had  in- 
dulged since  the  victory  of  Antioch ;  and  in  the 
pages  of  their  chroniclers  charges  of  universal  intem- 
perance and  debauchery  are  intermingled  with  the 
dreadful  picture  of  their  distress.  Nor  can  the  feel- 
ing be  condemned  as  an  irrational  superstition  which 
ascribed  the  calamities  of  the  crusaders  to  the  anger 
of  offended  Heaven ;  for,  of  all  the  miseries  which  they 
endured  throughout  the  war,  the  greater  portion  were 
only  the  faithful  consequences  of  their  crimes;  and 
the  union  of  fanaticism  and  profligacy  in  men  who 
believed  themselves  the  chosen  champions  of  a  sacred 
cause  is  among  the  most  sacred  objects  of  contempla- 
tion in  the  spirit  of  the  times.  At  the  outset  of  their 
enterprise,  while  the  sense  of  pious  duty  was  fresh  and 

stances,  so  unanimously  attests  the  prevalence  of  cannibalism  through- 
out the  first  Crusade,  as  to  make  it  impossible  to  doubt  the  fact.  This 
loathsome  indulgence  of  hunger  was  sometimes  associated  with  that 
of  an  avarice  almost  equally  disgusting.  We  are  told  that  the  Turks 
on  the  eve  of  battle  were  used  to  swallow  their  money,  and  that  the 
human  savages  into  whose  hands  they  fell  often  ripped  open  the 
bodies  of  the  slain,  or  of  murdered  captives,  to  search  for  gold,  and 
afterward  devoured  their  flesh.  The  cannibalism  of  the  Crusaders 
was  not  confined  to  one  season  of  distress,  but  had  become  fumiliar 
to  the  rabble  of  the  camp,  and  reached  its  height  during  the  third 
famine  of  Antioch,  when  in  their  desultory  attacks  upon  the  Turkish 
garrisons,  they  regularly  ate  the  dead  bodies  of  the  infidels,  and  even 
of  their  own  slain  companions.  See  Robert,  p.  69,  70 ;  Radulphus, 
p.  315.  Baldric,  p.  125,  and  Albert,  p.  267,  268  :  the  first  three 
of  whom  record  these  brutalities  with  horror,  and  the  last  with 
indifference. 


148  I'HE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

uncorrupted,  the  morals  of  the  crusaders  were  com- 
paratively pure;  and,  during  the  siege  of  Nice,  the 
same  authorities  which  are  loudest  in  reprobating  the 
subsequent  disorders  of  the  host,  bear  testimony  to  tho 
prevalence  of  virtue  and  decorum  in  their  camp. 
The  leaders  of  the  war,  in  general,  presented  an 
edifying  spectacle  of  humility  and  fraternal  concord; 
the  obedient  soldiery,  emulating  their  example,  were 
sober,  chaste,  and  vigilant;  and  from  the  proudest 
chieftain  to  the  lowest  warrior,  all  shared  alike  with 
undistinguishable  zeal  and  devotion  in  the  labours, 
privations,  watches,  and  perils  of  the  siege.  These 
sentiments  of  mutual  charity  and  forbearance  did  not, 
indeed,  extend  to  their  common  enemies;  for  their 
fanaticism  was  fierce  and  cruel;  and  mercy  to  the 
heathen  was  an  article  excluded  from  their  mistaken 
creed.  But  among  themselves  they  dwelt  in  Chris- 
tian brotherhood,  and  their  conduct  was  such  as 
became  warriors  who  had  devoted  their  lives  to  the 
service  of  God,  and  patiently  expected  the  crown  of 
martyrdom  which  they  as  firmly  believed  would  be 
the  reward  of  the  slain.*  But  both  the  license  and 
the  sufferings  of  the  march  through  Asia  Minor  first 
tended  to  relax  the  bonds  of  this  voluntary  discipline ; 
and  the  previous  self-denial  ot  all  ranks  degenerated, 
under  the  hardening  effects  of  want  and  danger,  into 
rapacious  and  selfish  brutality.  The  transition  from 

*  See  particularly  the  two  Archbishops,  Baldric,  p.  95 ;  and  Wil- 
liam of  Tyre,  p.  667-072,  &c. 


DEFENCE    OF    ANTIOCH.  149 

scarcity  to  luxurious  abundance  on  the  Arrival  of  the 
army  before  Antioch ;  the  enervating  influence  of  the 
Syrian  climate ;  the  absence  of  any  unity  of  command 
or  disciplined  restraints  over  a  host  composed  of  va- 
rious and  independent  nations ;  and  the  temptations 
offered  by  a  rich  and  fertile  district  to  the  riotous  in- 
dulgence of  every  sensual  passion  ;  all  assisted  in  pro- 
ducing a  general  corruption  of  morals.  Among  great 
masses  of  men,  the  alliance  of  misery  and  vice  is  pro- 
verbial ;  and  the  subsequent  calamities  of  famine  and 
pestilence  gave  a  frightful  completion  to  the  public 
iniquity.  In  the  hourly  contemplation  of  death,  and 
in  the  extremity  of  despair,  the  multitude,  so  far  from 
being  awed  into  virtue,  became  utterly  deaf  to  the 
voice  of  religion  and  conscience ;  every  divine  and 
human  law  was  disregarded  and  violated;  the  reli- 
gious exhortations  of  the  clergy,*  and  the  authority  of 
the  princes,  were  equally  despised;  and  the  most 
licentious  and  enormous  crimes  were  openly  perpe- 
trated. The  only  hold  which  their  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral rulers  could  exercise  over  the  minds  of  the 
multitude  was  through  their  gross  and  extravagant 

*  As  long  as  ecclesiastical  discipline  was  preserved  by  the  author- 
ity of  the  Legate  Adhemar,  whose  virtues  are  extolled  by  all  the 
chroniclers,  and  whose  death,  in  the  third  pestilence  of  Antioch,  waa 
lamented  by  the  whole  army,  the  clergy  set  an  edifying  example  of 
pious  resignation  and  morality;  but  the  Archbishop  of  Tyre  acknow- 
ledges (p.  763)  that,  after  the  loss  of  their  spiritual  chief,  their  con- 
duct in  general  relaxed  into  indifference  and  dissoluteness,  and  that 
they  became,  with  some  bright  exceptions,  as  vicious  as  the  people. 


150  THj.E    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

superstition ;  and  if  pretended  revelation  were  success- 
fully employed  to  animate  the  fanatical  courage  of  the 
soldiery,  or  served  to  excite  a  transient  ebullition  of 
remorse,*  denunciations  of  the  heavenly  wrath  al- 
ways failed  to  correct  the  public  depravity,  and  truth 
and  imposture  were  equally  powerless  in  effecting  any 
permanent  reformation  of  manners  in  the  crusading 
camp.f 

*  Among  other  things,  a  monk  was  assured  in  a  vision  that  the 
anger  of  God  was  specially  kindled  against  the  crusaders,  because 
Paynim  women  were  the  partners  of  their  amours ;  and  the  fair  infi- 
dels were  accordingly  for  a  time  sent  away  from  the  camp.  The 
good  Adhemar  went  further  on  another  occasion  :  he  considered  that 
he  was  procuring  an  acceptable  'sacrifice  to  Heaven  by  obliging  the 
warriors  to  separate  not  only  from  the  paramours,  but  from  their 
wives ;  and  all  the  women,  virtuous  as  well  as  vicious,  were  confined 
in  a  remote  quarter  of  the  camp.  Albert,  p.  234.  Willermus,  Tyr. 
p.  695. 

f  The  dissoluteness  of  the  crusading  army  before  Antioch  would 
surpass  belief  were  it  not  confirmed  by  unquestionable  testimony. 
Gibbon  has  dwelt  upon  it  in  his  own  peculiar  way,  (xi.  68,)  and  haa 
transferred  to  a  foot-note  an  allusion  to  the  "  tragic  and  scandalous 
fate  of  an  archdeacon  of  royal  birth,  who  was  slain  by  the  Turks  as 
he  reposed  in  an  orchard  playing  at  dice  with  a  Syrian  concubine." 
The  unfortunate  ecclesiastic,  who  thus  suffered  himself  to  be  seduced 
from  his  vow,  and  who  paid  with  his  life  the  penalty  of  his  folly,  was 
Alberon,  Archdeacon  of  Metz,  son  of  Conrad,  Count  of  Lunenbourg, 
and  a  relation  of  the  Emperor  of  Germany.  The  story  is  told  by 
Albertus  Aquensis,  i.  e.  Albert  of  Aix,  in  Provence,  a  canon  of  the 
church,  and  who,  though  not  a  crusader  himself,  derived  his  informa- 
tion from  trustworthy  sources.  He  calls  the  fair  partner  of  Alboron 
matroua, — whence  we  may  infer  that  she  was  a  married  woman,  and 
a  person  of  condition.  According  to  him,  her  fate  was'  horrible 
See  upon  this  subject  generally,  Mailly,  L' Esprit  Des  Croisades}iv. 
1 01 ;  and  Michaud,  History  of  the  Crusades,  i.  131. 


DEFENCE    OF    ANTIOCH.  151 

Amidst  all  the  demoralization  of  the  multitude,  no 
decay  of  fanatical  zeal  in  pursuing  the  great  ultimate 
object  of  the  war  is  justly  chargeable  upon  them. 
They,  indeed,  were  ever  clamorous  against  the  delays 
which  the  caution,  the  declining  ardour,  or  the  private 
views  of  their  leaders,  opposed  to  their  impatience. 
After  the  first  burst  of  enthusiasm  had  expended  itself 
in  the  sieges  of  Nice  and  Antioch,  the  latter,  with  the 
exception,  perhaps,  of  the  single-minded  Godfrey,  the 
gallant  and  disinterested  Tancred,  and  a  few  congenial 
spirits,  evinced  more  desire  to  indulge  their  love  of 
pleasure  and  rapine,  their  mutual  enmities  and  per- 
sonal ambition,  than  to  complete  the  purpose  of  the 
Crusade.  But  the  people  discovered  and  regarded 
their  selfishness  with  indignation  and  disgust ;  and 
the  soldiery  and  pilgrims  who  had  survived  the  third 
famine  and  pestilence  of  Antioch,  were  loud  in  their 
demands  to  be  led  without  further  loss  of  time  to  the 
conquest  of  Jerusalem.  The  popular  discontent  at  the 
continued  procrastination  of  the  enterprise  was  shortly 
displayed  in  a  temper  which  it  was  no  longer  safe  to 
provoke.  The  ramparts  of  the  city  of  Marra,  which, 
together  with  the  Albara  on  the  Orontes,  the  Count 
of  Thoulouse  had  captured  and  intended  to  retain, 
were  razed  to  the  ground  by  his  own  troops,  that  the 
place  might  not,  like  the  possession  of  Antioch  itself, 
be  rendered  an  object  of  contention  to  the  chiefs,  and 
of  delay  to  the  army.  Raymond,  finding  his  prize 
untenable,  was  compelled  to  yield  to  the  wishes  of  his 


152  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

Provencal  followers,  and  declared  his  readiness  to  lead 
them  to  the  deliverance  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre ;  the 
same  tardy  resolution  was  embraced  by  the  other 
princes ;  and  not  until  eight  months  had  expired 
since  the  final  reduction  of  Antioch,  were  the  cru- 
sading forces  once  more  concentrated,  and  put  in 
combined  motion  toward  Jerusalem.* 

*  Robert.  Mon.  xp.  69,  70.  Albert,  p.  267,  268.  Raymond  des 
Agiles,  p.  160-164.  Baldric,  p.  125,  126.  Guibert.  p.  525-527. 
Willermus  Tjr.  p.  731-736. 


CAPTURE    OF    JERUSALEM. 


153 


Jerusalem. 


SECTION  X. 


SIEGE  AND  CAPTURE  OF  JERUSALEM  BY  THE  CRUSADERS. 


& 


F  the  immense  host,  perhaps 
seven  hundred  thousand  men, 
which  had  originally  formed  the 
siege  of  Nice,  [A.  D.  1099,]  so 
enormous  had  been  the  losses 
by  the  sword  and  the  climate, 
by  famine  and  pestilence,  deser- 
tion and  conquest,  that  the  total 
force  which  advanced  from  An- 
tioch  amounted  to  only  fifteen 
hundred  cavalry  and  twenty 


154  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

thousand  foot  soldiers,  with  about  an  equal  number  of 
unarmed  pilgrims  and  camp  followers.  But  this  rem- 
nant of  the  myriads  who  had  assumed  the  cross  was 
composed  of  veteran  and  devoted  warriors,  and  led  by 
those  renowned  chieftains  and  champions  of  the  sa- 
cred war,  whose  zeal  and  constancy  had  triumphantly 
surmounted  the  fiery  trials  of  peril  and  temptation : 
Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  the  two  Roberts  of  Normandy 
and  of  Flanders,  Raymond  of  Thoulouse,  and  Tan- 
cred.  Boemond,  pleading  the  cares  of  his  new  prin- 
cipality, did  not  accompany  their  march  fai  beyond 
its  confines ;  but  he  freely  rendered  his  contributions 
and  support  to  the  success  of  the  common  cause ;  and 
his  confederates,  whatever  contempt  and  indignation 
they  might  feel  at  this  personal  abandonment  of  his 
vows,  received  his  excuses  and  accepted  his  aid. 
From  Antioch  to  Jaffa,  a  distance  of  about  three  hun- 
dred miles,  the  crusaders,  for  the  convenience  of  sup- 
plying their  wants  from  the  Italian  vessels  which 
traded  on  the  coast,  chose  their  route  along  the  sea- 
shore. Their  advance  was  easy  and  unopposed ;  for 
the  Turkish  Emirs  of  Gabala,  Tortosa,  Tripoli,  Beri- 
tus,  Tyre,  Sidon,  Acre,  and  other  intervening  places, 
despairing  of  successful  resistance,  either  fled  from 
their  strongholds,  or,  deprecating  assault,  by  submis- 
sion purchased  the  forbearance  of  the  invaders  with 
large  contributions  of  money  and  provisions.  At 
Jaffa,  turning  from  the  coast,  the  exulting  host  struck 
into  the  interior  of  the  country,  and  directed  their 


CAPTURE    OF    JERUSALEM.  155 

march  upon  Jerusalem  itself.  "With  devout  and 
awful  curiosity,  the  rude  warriors  of  Europe  now 
traversed  a  region  filled  with  places  which  hourly 
recalled  some  sacred  association;  the  clergy  succes- 
sively directed  the  religious  attention  of  their  more 
ignorant  brethren  to  the  memorable  scenes  of  Ramula, 
Bethlehem,  and  Emmaus ;  and  at  length  the  holy 
city  burst  upon  their  enraptured  gaze.  In  that  glo- 
rious sight,  the  long-cherished  object,  promise,  and 
reward  of  their  hopes,  every  toil  was  forgotten,  every 
Buffering  repaid.  The  single  mighty  passion  of  a  host 
suddenly  broke  forth  in  joyful  exclamations  and  em- 
braces; and  these  first  gladsome  emotions,  which 
filled  every  heart  with  pious  thanksgivings,  were  as 
quickly  succeeded  by  feelings  of  deep  humiliation  and 
self-abasement.  The  proud  noble,  the  fierce  soldier, 
and  the  lowly  pilgrim,  confessed  their  common  un- 
worthiness  even  to  look  upon  the  scene  which  had 
witnessed  the  sufferings  of  the  Redeemer  of  mankind ; 
and  the  whole  armed  multitude,  as  with  one  impulse, 
sinking  on  their  knees,  prostrated  themselves,  and 
poured  out  their  tears  over  the  consecrated  soil.* 

But  the  deliverance  of  the  Holy  City  and  Sepul- 
chre from  infidel  bondage  and  profanation  still  re- 
mained to  be  achieved.  By  the  admixture  of  truth 
with  imposture,  the  Mussulmans  themselves  had  been 

*  Robert,  p.  71.  Albert,  p.  269-274.  Raymond  des  Agiles, 
p.  165-173.  Baldric,  p.  127-131.  Radulphus  Cad.  p.  317-319 
Willermus  Tyr.  p.  736-745. 


156  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

taught  to  revere  Jerusalem  as  inferior  in  sanctity 
only  to  Mecca  and  Medina;*  and  every  motive  of 
religion,  honour,  and  policy,  forbade  the  Khalif  of 
Egypt  to  yield  to  the  Christians  that  ancient  pos- 
session which  his  arms  had  recently  recovered  from 
the  Turks.  Finding,  therefore,  his  repeated  offers  of 
alliance  and  peaceful  admission  into  Jerusalem  as 
unarmed  pilgrims  contemptuously  spurned  by  the 
haughty  warriors  of  the  West,  he  had  prepared  for 
the  vigorous  defence  of  the  city.  No  less  than  forty 
thousand  of  the  best  troops  of  Egypt,  under  Istakar, 
his  most  distinguished  and  favourite  lieutenant,  were 
assigned  for  its  regular  garrison ;  and  this  force  was 
swollen  by  twenty  thousand  Mussulman  citizens  and 
peasantry  of  the  surrounding  district,  who,  on  the 
approach  of  the  Christian  invaders,  took  refuge  within 
the  walls.  It  was  abundantly  supplied  with  provi- 
sions ;  and  its  ancient  fortifications,  which  increased 
the  natural  strength  of  the  site,  had  been  diligently 
restored  or  repaired.  As  Mount  Sion  was  no  longer 
embraced  within  their  circuit,  the  city,  including  the 
hills  of  Acra,  Moria,  Bezetha,  and  Golgotha,  pre- 
sented the  form  of  a  parallelogram ;  but,  on  the 
southern  and  eastern  faces,  the  craggy  precipices 
equally  defied  assault  and  obstructed  any  sally ;  and 


*  D'Hcrbclot,  BlblloiJieque    Orientate  v.  Al    Cods,  p.  269.     AJ 
ds,  or  the  Holy,  was  the  Arabic  designation  of  Jerusalem. 


CAPTURE    OF    JERUSALEM. 


157 


Mount  Sion. 

the^wo  remaining  sides  presented  the  only  accessible 
points  of  operation. 

Before  these  fronts  the  besiegers  impatiently 
pitched  their  camp.  The  Count  of  Thoulouse  chose 
his  station  from  Mount  Sion  along  the  western  side ; 
Eustace  of  Boulogne  extended  his  troops  from  the 
conclusion  of  the  Provencal  lines  toward  the  north, 
until  he  adjoined  the  quarters  of  his  brother.  Duke 
Godfrey,  whose  standard  was  planted  on  the  north- 
western angle  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Calvary ;  and  the 
two  Roberts  and  Tancred  continued  the  blockade  from 
that  point  to  the  verge  of  the  Eastern  precipices.  In 


158  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

the  first  confidence  of  their  fanatical  valour,  the  cru- 
saders, fully  expecting  the  miraculous  aid  of  Heaven, 
rushed,  on  the  fifth  morning  after  the  investment,  to 
a  furious  assault  of  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  without 
battering  engines,  without  scaling  ladders,  without 
any  of  the  ordinary  applications  of  the  besieging  art. 
The  astonishing  impetuosity  of  their  rash  onset,  de- 
spite of  every  probability  and  obstacle,  had  nearly 
delivered  the  city  into  their  hands.  Disregarding  the 
superior  numbers,  the  safe  position,  and  the  deadly 
missiles  of  the  garrison,  they  burst  through  the  barbi- 
can, or  lower  outward  gate,  and  even  penetrated  to 
the  foot  of  the  main  rampart.  But  here  they  were 
arrested,  less  by  any  efforts  of  the  panic-stricken  infi- 
dels, than  by  the  mere  inaccessible  height  of  the  bul- 
warks and  the  absence  of  all  means  of  escalade.  The 
Mussulmans,  perceiving  the  inability  of  the  assailants 
to  approach  them,  recovered  their  courage;  hurled 
down  every  destructive  variety  of  projectiles  on  the 
heads  of  the  exposed  and  devoted  Christians;  and 
finally  beat  them  back  with  slaughter  and  confusion  to 
their  camp. 

The  leaders  of  the  Crusade,  awakened  from  their 
fanatical  delusion  by  this  repulse,  now  prepared  to  pro- 
secute the  siege  by  the  rules  of  art.  They  resolved 
to  construct  the  usual  machines  for  breaching  or  over- 
towering  the  walls;  but  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
Jerusalem  afforded  no  timber  sufficiently  large  for 
these  works ;  and  the  surrounding  country  was  ex- 


CAPTURE    OF    JERUSALEM.  159 

plored  for  materials.  It  was  only  at  the  distance  of 
thirty  miles  that,  in  the  grove  of  Sichem,*  trees  could 
be  found  of  suitable  dimensions ;  and,  under  the  di- 
rection of  the  indefatigable  Tancred,  the^e  being  felled 
were  transported  by  the  painful  but  zealous  labour  of 
the  soldiery  to  the  camp.  Competent  artificers  were 
yet  wanting,  when  the  fortunate  arrival  of  some  Ge- 
noese galleys  at  Jaffa  supplied  this  deficiency.  So 
general  a  superiority  in  mechanical  skill  had  the 
commercial  people  of  Italy  attained  over  the  igno- 
rance of  the  times,  that  the  whole  Latin  host  were 
dependent  on  the  fortuitous  services  of  these  mariners. 
The  crews  were  landed  at  Jaffa ;  an  escort  of  troops 
was  despatched  to  bring  them  up  from  the  coast ;  and, 
as  soon  as  they  reached  the  carnp,  they  undertook  the 
construction  of  three  great  movable  towers,  with  pro- 
per engines  for  throwing  missiles,  undermining  the 
ramparts,  and  battering  or  scaling  the  walls.  The 
army  awaited  the  completion  of  their  labours  in  anx- 
ious suspense ;  for  now  again  were  the  sufferings  of 
their  former  sieges  repeated  under  a  new  variety  of 
horror.  The  country  round  Jerusalem  was  destitute 
of  water;  the  rocky  soil  yielded  few  springs;  the 


*  A  city  of  Canaan,  and  subsequently  of  Samaria,  and  the  burial- 
place  of  the  patriarch  Jacob,  frequently  mentioned  in  Scripture.  It 
was  situated  on  Mount  Ephraim,  where  afterward  stood  the  Flavia 
Neapolis  of  Herod,  now  the  Nablous  of  the  Arabs.  It  was  one  of 
the  cities  of  refuge  appointed  by  Joshua,  (xx.  7,)  and  was  the 
enchanted  grove  of  the  poet  Tasso.  (Gerusal.  Liberata.  canto  xii.) 


160  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

fountains  and  reservoirs  had  been  destroyed  by  the 
infidels ;  and  the  streams  of  Siloe  and  Kedron  were 
dried  up  by  the  intense  heats  of  summer.  The  be- 
siegers were  agonized  by  thirst ;  a  scanty  supply  of 
water  could  be  procured  only  at  a  distance  of  several 
miles  ;  and  the  poorer  multitude,  who  could  not  pay 
for  its  transport  in  gold,  were  obliged  to  wander  in 
quest  of  the  springs,  at  the  hazard  of  being  cut  off  by 
the  fleet  Mussulman  hordes  which  scoured  the  whole 
country.  Numbers,  by  abstaining  from  food,  endea- 
voured to  lessen  the  intolerable  thirst  which  consumed 
them ;  and  so  extreme  was  the  distress,  that  many 
gasping  wretches  were  fain  to  lick  up  the  dews  of 
night  from  the  rocks,  and  to  excavate  holes  in  the 
earth  that  they  might  but  press  their  lips  against  the 
moister  soil.* 

For  forty  days,  amid  this  horrid  drought,  had  the 
siege  endured,  before  the  readiness  of  their  engines  of 
assault  enabled  the  crusaders  to  put  a  triumphant  con- 
summation to  their  labours.  When  the  lofty  mova- 
ble towers,  each  of  three  stories,  were  completed,  two, 
respectively  manned  and  worked  by  the  troops  of 
Godfrey  and  Raymond,  were  slowly  moved  forward 
toward  the  walls.  The  former  leader  chose  his  point 
of  attack  where  the  rampart  had  least  elevation,  and 
the  great  depth  of  the  ditch  had  rendered  the  garrison 
negligent  of  its  defence.  Three  days  were  laboriously 

*  These  expressive  proofs  of  the  height  of  the  people's  sufferings 
are  given  by  Robert  the  Monk,  p.  75. 


CAPTURE    OF    JERUSAIEM. 


Godfrey  of  Bouillon. 

consumed  in  filling  up  this  fosse ;  and  the  tower  was 
then  successfully  rolled  over  the  new  level.  Mean- 
while the  Provengals  had  been  less  skilful  or  fortu- 
nate ;  for  their  tower  was  repeatedly  damaged  by  the 
besieged  with  projectiles  and  fire.  But  several  ap- 
proaches were  prepared  against  different  fronts  of  the 
main  ramparts  of  the  place  with  battering  and  mining 
engines ;  and  the  eager  warriors  only  awaited  the  sig- 
nal of  final  attack.  On  the  eve  of  the  day  appointed 
for  a  general  assault  of  the  city,  the  whole  host,  in 
full  armament,  and  preceded  by  the  clergy,  made  a 

religious  procession  round  the  walls    to  invoke  the 

11 


112  TEE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

divine  aid.  Instead  of  banners,  crucifixes  were  borne 
aloft  at  the  head  of  the  troops ;  every  instrument  of 
martial  music  was  hushed ;  and  the  only  sounds  to 
which  the  army  moved  were  sacred  chants  of  psalm- 
ody. Ascending  the  Mounts  of  Olives  and  of  Zion, 
the  crusaders  halted  on  each  of  those  holy  places,  and 
knelt  in  prayer;  and  when  these  solemn  rites  had 
elevated  the  devotional  and  warlike  enthusiam  of  the 
soldiery  to  the  highest  pitch  of  excitement,  the  spec- 
tacle which  was  presented  from  the  walls  still  further 
inflamed  their  fanatical  feelings  with  a  deadly  thirst 
of  revenge  against  the  infidels.  The  garrison,  dis- 
playing crucifixes  on  the  ramparts,  derided  those  re- 
vered emblems  of  salvation,  and  covered  them  with 
filth ;  arid  the  crusaders  with  shouts  of  fury  vowed  to 
wash  out  these  impious  insults  in  the  blood  of  the 
perpetrators. 

Thus  animated  by  every  incentive  of  natural  va- 
lour, religious  hope,  and  fanatical  vengeance,  the  cru- 
sading host  advanced  on  the  following  dawn  to  the 
assault  of  Jerusalem.  While  showers  of  arrows  and 
stones  from  the  archers  and  balistic  engines  were  di- 
rected against  the  defenders  on  the  ramparts  to  cover 
the  principal  operations,  the  battering  and  mining 
machines  and  huge  movable  towers — all  the  stages 
of  the  latter  filled  with  chosen  bodies  of  knights 
dnd  men-at-arms — were  impelled  toward  the  walls. 
But  the  onset  was  received  by  the  Moslems  with 
a  courage  guided  by  skill,  and  sustained  by  confi- 


CAPTURE    OF    JERUSALEM. 

dence  or  despair.  From  behind  the  defences,  their 
incessant  flights  of  missiles  replied  with  murder- 
ous effect  upon  the  more  exposed  bodies  of  the  Latin 
archers ;  masses  of  rock  were  successfully  hurled  upon 
the  machines  of  the  besiegers ;  and  the  dreadful  Greek 
fire  was  .poured  in  liquid  streams  against  the  movable 
towers.  During  the  day  the  struggle  raged  without 
intermission,  and  the  event  still  hung  in  tremendous 
expense.  But,  at  even,  the  slaughter  among  the  cru- 
saders far  exceeded  that  of  the  infidels ;  the  great 
tower  of  Count  Raymond  had  been  partially  burned 
and  disabled ;  many  of  the  other  engine's  of  assault 
had  been  destroyed;  and  the  besiegers  were  reluc- 
tantly compelled  to  desist  for  the  night  from  further 
efforts.  Yet  their  heroic  spirit  was  undismayed, 
their  confidence  unabated,  their  labour  indefatigable. 
Though  the  ProvenQal  tower  had  been  arrested  in 
its  advance,  that  of  Duke  Godfrey  was  undanraged, 
and  had  been  brought  into  threatening  contiguity  to 
the  rampart ;  and  on  other  fronts  of  attack  the  walls 
of  the  city  were  shaken,  and  already  imperfectly 
breached  in  several  places,  by  the  violent  strokes  of 
the  battering-rams  and  the  more  insidious  use  of  the 
sap.  At  daylight,  the  assault  and  defence  were  re- 
newed increased  with  fury ;  at  noon,  the  desperate 
conflict  was  still  balanced  in  appalling  indecision; 
but,  at  the  third  hour  of  the  evening,  the  barbican 
having  been  beaten  down,  the  tower  of  Godfrey  was 
forced  sufficiently  near  to  the  inner  rampart  to  enable 


164 


THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 


Capture  of  Jerusalem. 


the  iron-nerved  chivalry  of  Europe  to  close  hand  to 
hand  for  the  mastery,  with  the  less  vigorous  warriors 
of  the  East.  In  that  moment,  so  critical  for  the  sus- 
pended cause  of  Christendom  and  Islam,  the  spirit 
and  strength  of  the  Mussulman  defenders  of  Jerusa- 
lem, despite  of  their  superior  numbers  and  securer 
footing,  quailed  before  the  personal  prowess  of  the 
champions  of  the  cross.  The  frail  drawbridge  of  the 
tower  was  let  down  upon  the  solid  rampart ;  two  bro- 
thers, Letoldus  and  Englebert,  of  Toum-iy,  in  Flan- 
ders, were  the  first  and  second  of  the  crusading  war- 


CAPTURE    OF    JERUSALEM.  165 

riors  who  sprang  upon  the  battlements ;  and  Godfrey 
of  Bouillon,  himself  the  third,  planted  his  banner 
on  the  walls.*  His  victorious  example  was  followed 
with  irresistible  energy ;  in  quick  succession  the  Duke 
of  Normandy,  the  Count  of  Flanders,  and  Tancred, 
burst  through  the  gate  of  St.  Stephen  into  the  city ; 
and  at  every  breach  in  the  works  a  passage  was  im- 
petuously forced  by  their  emulous  associates  and  fol- 
lowers. Meanwhile,  the  Count  of  Thoulouse,  dis- 
daining to  enter  the  place  in  the  train  of  his  more 
successful  confederates,  gallantly  inspired  his  Proven- 
c,als  to  carry  the  rampart  in  their  front  by  escalade ; 
the  defenders,  appalled  by  the  defeat  of  their  bre- 
thren, wavered  and  fled ;  and,  in  all  quarters,  the 
ensign  of  the  cross  floated  over  the  towers  of  Jeru- 
salem. 

Abandoning  all  further  hope,  the  fleeing  multitude 
of  the  Moslems  thronged  to  die  under  the  sacred 
domes  of  their  Mosques.  The  victors  pursued  them 
with  a  relentless  fury,  which  consigned  men,  women, 
and  children  to  indiscriminate  slaughter.  The  pas- 
sive and  unresisting  despair  with  which  the  helpless 
and  miserable  crowds  awaited  their  fate,  neither 
awakened  the  pity  nor  satiated  the  bloody  vengeance 

*  The  author  of  L' Esprit  des  Croisades  arranges  the  series  of  the 
successful  assailants  somewhat  differently,  viz.  thus : — Godfrey,  Eu- 
stace, Baldwin  de  Burgh,  Bernard  de  St.  Valier,  De  Guicher,  and 
De  Raimbauil  Croton.  These  took  the  lead  in  the  order  in  which 
they  are  named,  followed  closely  by  D'Amanjeu  d'Albret,  and  Leo- 
told- and  Englcbert  of  Tournay;  iv.  420. 


166  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

of  their  savage  destroyers.  The  outrages  which  the 
Infidels  had  formerly  inflicted  on  the  Christian  pil- 
grims, and  the  insults  with  which  they  had  recently 
derided  the  cross,  were  sternly  remembered  and  fear- 
fully avenged;  the  very  sight  of  the  sacred  places 
which  they  had  profaned  with  their  false  worship 
served  to  heighten  the  fanatical  rage  of  the  conquer- 
•ors  against  the  fugitives  who  sought  shelter  in  those 
edifices ;  and  it  was  the  boast  of  the  Latin  princes,  in 
a  public  letter  which  they  addressed  to  the  pope,* 
that,  in  the  splendid  mosque  erected  by  the  Khalif 
Omar  on  the  site  of  the  Temple  of  Solomon,f  they 
rode  up  to  their  horses'  knees  in  the  blood  of  the 
Infidels.  In  that  principal  sanctuary  alone,  ten  thou- 
sand persons  were  massacred ;  every  minor  retreat  in 
the  city  was  explored  with  equally  fierce  diligence  by 
the  swords  of  the  crusaders;  and  the  horrid  computa- 
tion of  the  total  carnage  on  the  battlements,  through- 
out the  streets,  and  in  the  churches  and  houses,  has 
been  variously  extended  to  an  incredible  number  of 
both  sexes  and  all  ages.J 


*  Martenne,  Thesaurus  Novus,  vol.  i.  p.  281. 

•j"  D'Anville,  Diss.  sur  VAncienne  Jerusalem,  p.  42—53. 

J  By  the  Mussulman  writers  (De  Guiges,  vol.  ii.  p.  99,  and  Abul- 
feda,  apucl  Reiske,  vol.  iii.  p.  319),  the  numbers  massacred  are 
stated  as  high  as  seventy  or  even  one  hundred  thousand  souls :  but 
these  were  traditional  estimates  long  after  the  event;  and  the  last 
probably  exceeds  the  amount  of  the  whole  population  of  Jerusalem 
at  the  period.  William  of  Tyre,  who  alone  of  the  Latin  chroniclers 
attempts  a  precise  enumeration,  gives  twenty  thousand  as  the  numbei 


CAPTURE    OF    JERUSALEM.  167 

These  dreadful  scenes  of  fanatical  cruelty,  from 
which  reason  and  humanity  equally  revolt,  were  fol- 
lowed by  a  sudden  transition  of  passion,^  as  strangely 
but  less  painfully  characteristic  of  the  times;  and,  the 
events  of  the  single  day  on  which  Jerusalem  was 
stormed,  forcibly  exemplify  the  unnatural  union  of 
those  motives  of  martial  achievement,  ferocious  in- 
tolerance, and  fervent  piety,  which  produced  the  Cru- 
sade. The  mailed  warriors  who  had  sworn  and  ac- 
complished the  deliverance  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  in 
arms,  hastened,  as  humble  and  repentant  pilgrims,  to 
complete  their  vows  of  adoration,  at  that  hallowed 
monument  of  redemption.  Duke  Godfrey,  after  him- 
self staining  the  example  of  heroic  courage  with 
merciless  slaughter,  threw  aside  his  reeking  sword, 
washed  his  bloody  hands,  exchanged  his  armour  for  a 
white  linen  tunic,  and,  with  bare  head  and  feet,  re- 
paired in  pious  humiliation  to  the  Church  of  the 
Sepulchre.  The  same  religious  impulse  was  quickly 
communicated  to  his  fellow-warriors;  the  inhuman 
fanaticism  which  had  so  lately  steeled  their  hearts 
against  every  softer  emotion,  was  all  at  once  relaxed 
into  a  flood  of  contrite  and  tearful  devotion ;  and  the 
whole  host  in  turn,  discarding  their  arms  and  purify- 
ing their  persons  from  the  signs  of  recent  slaughter, 
moved  in  procession  to  the  Hill  of  Calvary,  and  in 
mingled  penitence  for  their  sins,  and  thanksgiving  for 

of  victims  in  the  first  massacre,  of  whom  one  half  fell  in  the  Mosque 
of  Omar. 


168  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

their  victor}',  wept  over  the  tomb  of  the  Saviour  of 
the  world.  After  these  religious  exercises,  a  loose 
was  given  to  the  general  joy  both  of  the  Latin  con- 
querors and  the  native  Christians,  who  had  either 
been  retained  in  the  city  during  the  siege,  or  ha*d 
gathered  in  the  crusading  quarters.  Among  the 
latter  was  the  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem;  who,  after 
seeking  a  retreat  from  the  Mussulman  tyranny  in 
Cyprus,  had  lately  arrived  in  the  camp.  He  in- 
structed his  flock  to  honour,  in  the  person  of  Peter 
the  Hermit,  the  faithful  missionary  whose  indignation 
and  piety  had  been  moved  by  the  spectacle  of  their 
bondage  to  the  Infidels,  and  whose  holy  zeal  had 
roused  the  nations  of  the  Western  World  to  under- 
take their  deliverance.  The  grateful  multitudes  pros- 
trated themselves  before  the  poor  Solitary  of  Amiens, 
as  a  revered  and  chosen  servant  of  God;  and,  if  the 
sincerity  of  the  fanatic,  who,  to  perform  this  service, 
had  twice  traversed  Europe  and  Asia,  may  be  mea- 
sured by  his  indefatigable  labours  in  the  imaginary 
cause  of  Heaven,  the  spiritual  triumph  which  re- 
warded his  success  must  have  surpassed  the  most  ex- 
quisite enjoyment  of  temporal  ambition.* 

Among  the  conscious  offences  which  humbled  the 


*  It  is  singular  that,  after  his  reception  of  this  public  homage,  the 
name  of  the  Hermit  occurs  not  again  in  any  contemporary  or 
authentic  record ;  and  history  has  altogether  forgotten  to  notice  the 
subsequent  fate  of  the  man  who  had  moved  the  population  of  Europo 
from  its  foundations. 


CAPTURE    OF    JERUSALEM.  169 

souls  of  the  crusaders  in  contrition  and  prayer  before 
the  altar  of  the  Sepulchre,  they  were  so  far  from 
numbering  their  cruelties  to  the  Infidels,  that  they 
deemed  the  late  work  of  slaughter  a  meritorious  offer- 
ing to  the  God  of  Mercies.  To  every  pious  and  en- 
lightened mind  there  can  be  few  subjects  of  contem- 
plation more  offensive  arid  painful  than  this  alliance 
of  a  devotion,  which,  though  mistaken,  was  sincere, 
with 'so  ferocious  and  dark  a  superstition.  Scenes  of 
bloodshed  similar  to  those  which  had  preceded,  also 
followed  the  interval  of  worship;  and,  on  the  morning 
after  the  capture  of  Jerusalem,  the  crusaders  delibe- 
rately renewed  the  massacre  of  the  Infidel  garrison 
and  inhabitants.  The  Jews  of  the  city  were  burned 
alive  in  their  synagogues;  the  Mussulman  captives 
who  had  been  spared  by  the  lassitude,  and  the 
fugitives  who  had  eluded  the  first  search  of  the 
victors,  were  now  dragged  from  their  prisons  and 
hiding-places,  and  remorselessly  butchered.  All — 
even  women,  children,  and  infants  at  the  breast — 
shared  the  same  fate,  except  a  few  wretched  Mussul- 
mans, who  owed  their  escape  from  the  general 
daughter,  not  to  the  humanity,  but  to  the  covetous- 
ness  of  the  Count  of  Thoulouse,  who  rescued  them  for 
sale  as  slaves,  and  incurred  the  censure  of  the  army 
by  preferring  the  indulgence  of  his  avarice  to  that  of 
his  fanaticism.  With  the  rest  of  the  crusaders,  the 
former  passion  was  only  second  to  their  cruelty;  and 
the  work  of  pillage  proceeded  simultaneously  with 


170  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

that  of  bloodshed.  By  previous  agreement,  the  rich 
plunder  of  the  mosques,  which  abounded  with  lampa 
and  vases  of  gold  and  silver,  was  dedicated  to  the 
service  of  the  church  and  the  relief  of  the  poor;  but 
each  house  became  the  property  of  the  first  warrior 
who  burst  its  door,  and  suspended  his  shield  from  its 
walls.* 

The  infidel  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  had  been  ex- 
tirpated ;  and  the  law  of  conquest  supplied  a  new  and 
Christian  population.  When  the  victorious  soldiery 
had  divided  the  possession  of  the  Holy  City,  her 
streets  were  cleansed  from  the  horrid  pollution  of 
recent  slaughter  by  the  labour  of  some  Mussulman 
slaves;  the  churches  and  mosques  were  delivered  up 
to  the  clergy  and  dedicated  afresh,  or  now  first  con- 
verted to  the  purposes  of  Christian  worship;  and, 
tenanted  by  the  various  population  of  her  martial 
citizens  from  every  Western  nation,  Jerusalem  pre- 
sented the  novel  aspect  of  an  European  settlement. 
After  the  occupation  of  the  city,  the  earliest  care  of 
the  leaders  of*  the  Crusade  was  given  to  the  duty  of 


*In  the  Mosque  of  Omar,  no  fewer  than  seventy  massive  lamps  of 
gold  and  silver  were  found  by  Tancred,  and  surrendered  to  the  pre- 
scribed uses  of  religion  and  charity ;  but  not,  if  we  may  believe 
Malmsbury,  (p.  443,)  before  the  costliness  of  the  prize  had  seduced 
the  hero,  in  a  moment  of  unwonted  frailty,  to  forget  the  usual  purity 
of  his  virtue.  He  attempted  to  secrete  the  spoils  for  his  private 
profit,  until  he  was  driven,  either  by  the  reproaches  of  his  own  con- 
science, or  dread  of  public  censure,  to  make  restitution  of  his  booty 
to  the  Ecciesi  .stical  Treasury. 


CAPTURE    OF    JERUSALEM.  171 

securing  their  conquest.  The  establishment  of  a 
feudal  kingdom  in  Palestine  was  obviously  suggested 
by  the  familiar  example  of  the  same  form  of  polity  im 
the  Western  monarchies,  and  by  the  necessity  of 
organizing  a  martial  system  of  tenures  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  Christian  state  and  the  protection  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre.  On  the  eighth  day,  therefore,  after 
tfye  capture  of  the  city,  the  princely  and  noble  chief- 
tains of  the  crusading  host  assembled  to  confer,  by 
their  free  voices,  the  feudal  sovereignty  of  Jerusalem, 
with  its  future  dependencies,  upon  one  of  their  body. 
The  accidents  of  war  had  diminished  the  number  of 
those  great  leaders  of  the  European  chivalry  who,  by 
their  hereditary  rank,  the  strong  array  of  their  re- 
tainers, or  the  influence  of  personal  character,  were 
entitled  to  aspire  to  this  honour.  Boemond  and 
Baldwin  were  already  seated  in  the  principalities  of 
Antioch  and  Edessa,  and  had  withdrawn  themselves 
from  immediate  participation  in  the  crowning  glories 
of  the  Holy  "War;  the  grea£  Count  of  Vermandois 
and  the  Count  of  Chartres  had,  with  deeper  reproach, 
altogether  deserted  the  sacred  expedition ;  and  al- 
though, in  chivalric  fame,  Tancred  was  at  least  their 
equal,  the  princes  of  sovereign  rank  who  remained 
with  the  army  were  four  only  in  number;  the  two 
Roberts,  of  Normandy  and  of  Flanders,  the  Count  of 
Thoulouse,  and  the  Duke  of  Brabant.  Of  these 
princes,  if  we  may  believe  our  Anglo-Norman  writers, 
the  crown  of  Jerusalem  was  offered  first  to  the  brave 


172  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

but  prodigal  son  of  the  Conqueror,  and  declined  by 
his  modest  distrust  of  his  own  merits,  by  his  less 
praiseworthy  indolence,  or  by  his  preference  of  his 
European  Duchy.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  credit 
the  Provengal  chroniclers  of  the  Crusade,  the  same 
proffer  and  refusal  of  the  regal  dignity  must  be  ascribed 
to  the  Count  of  Thoulouse.*  But  the  tale  of  Robert's 
election  is  entirely  discredited  by  the  silence  of  every 
immediate  chronicler  of  the  Crusade ;  and  the  grasp- 
ing ambition  and  selfish  cupidity  ever  displayed  by 
the  Count  of  Thoulouse,  both  before  and  after  the  fall 
of  Jerusalem,  are  not  only  incompatable  with  the  dis- 
interestedness imputed  to  him  by  his  adherents,  but 
are  expressly  stated  by  a  better  authority]-  to  have 
occasioned  the  rejection  of  his  claims.  Between 
Robert  of  Flanders  and  his  friend  the  Duke  of  Bra- 
bant, if  there  existed  any  rivalry  in  pretension,  there 
was  at  least  no  equality  of  merit ;  and,  in  opposition 
to  the  intrigues  of  the  wily  and  jealous  Provengal,  the 
general  voice  of  the  assembly  proclaimed  Godfrey  of 
Bouillon  as  the  most  deserving,  both  by  his  prowess 
and  piety,  among  all  the  princely  champions  of  the 
Cross,  to  receive  the  crown  of  Jerusalem  and  the 
guardianship  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  The  spirit  of 
Godfrey  was  too  magnanimous  to  shrink  from  the 
perilous  ^nd  unquiet  charge  which  intrusted  to  him 

*  Raymond  des  Agiles,  p.  179.     Albert.  Aquensis,  p.  283.     Qui« 
pert,  p.  537. 
fWillermusTyr.763. 


CAPTURE    OF     JERUSALEM.  173 

rather  the  sword  of  the  crusader  than  the  sceptre  of  a 
feudal  king.  [July  23,  1090.]  He  was  immedi- 
ately conducted  in  solemn  procession  to  the  church  of 
the  Sepulchre,  and  there  inaugurated  in  his  new 
office;  but,  with  the  pious  humility  which  distin- 
guished his  character,  hie  refused  to  have  a  regal 
diadem  placed  on  his  brows  in  that  city,  wherein  his 
Saviour  had  worn  a  crown  of  thorns;  and  modestly 
declining  the  name  with  the  decoration  of  a  king,  he 
would  accept  no  prouder  title  than  that  of  Advocate 
or  Defender  of  the  tomb  of  Christ.* 

The  estimation  in  which  Godfrey  was  held  by  the 
army,  may  be  known  from  the  universal  lamentation 
which  prevailed  when  he  met  with  a  disaster  in  Asia 
Minor.  When  alone  in  the  dense  part  of  a  forest,  the 
duke  heard  the  cries  of  a  poor  pilgrim,  who  had  been 
attacked  by  a  bear,  while  cutting  wood.  Godfrey 
hastened  to  his  relief,  when  the  bear  quitted  his  vic- 
tim to  attack  his  new  enemy.  He  seized  the  duke  by 
the  cloak  and  dragged  him  to  the  ground.  His  sword 
being  entangled  between  his  legs,  Godfrey  wounded 
himself  severely  in  the  thigh  in  attempting  to  draw 
it.  He  continued  the  fight,  however,  till  the  jnoise 
brought  others  to  the  spot.  A  knight,  named  Hase- 
quin,  despatched  the  bear  \vith  his  sword,  and  the 

*  The  title  of  Advocate  or  Defender  of  a  church  or  monastery  was 
familiar  to  the  age  of  Godfrey :  when,  under  that  term,  it  was  cus- 
tomary for  ecclesiastical  bodies  to  purchase  the  protection  of  some 
prince  or  powerful  noble.  But  see  Du  Cenge  v.  Advocatus. 


174  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

almost  exhausted  duke  was  borne  to  the  camp,  where 
the  loss  of  a  battle  would  scarcely  have  spread  more 
consternation  than  the  unhappy  spectacle  he  afforded 
to  the  eyes  of  the  Christians. 

From  the  election  of  Godfrey  of  Bouillon  may  be 
dated  the  foundation  of  the  LATIN  KINGDOM  OF  JERU- 
SELEM.*  By  that  event,  stability  was  given  to  the 
recent  conquests  of  the  crusaders;  and  Jerusalem, 
which,  after  a  possession  of  more  than  four  hundred 
and  fifty  years  since  its  surrender  to  Omar,  had  been 
wrested  out  of  the  hands  of  the  disciples  of  Moham- 
med, was  converted  into  the  capital  of  a  Christian 
state.  After  the  worthy  choice  of  a  sovereign  to  de- 
fend and  govern  their  conquests,  it  remained  for  the 
crusaders  only  to  secure  their  maintenance  and  exten- 
sion by  regulating  the  martial,  civil,  and  ecclesiastical 
institutions  of  the  new  kingdom.  The  religious  zeal 

*  Rofcertus  Mon.  p.  74-77.  Albertus  Aquensis,  p.  275-289. 
Baldricus  Arch.  p.  132-134.  Raymond  des  Agiles,  p.  175-178. 
Radulphus  Cad.  p.  320-324.  Fulchrius.  '  Carnot,  p.  396-400. 
Guibert,  p.  533-537.  Willermus  Tyr.  p.  746-763,  &c. 

These  references  embrace  the  original  authorities  for  all  the  details 
given  in  the  text  of  the  siege  and  capture  of  Jerusalem.  But, 
throughout  the  above  narrative,  the  present  compilation  is  also  largely 
indebted  to  the  labours  of  our  modern  English  historians  of  the 
same  events :  to  the  LVIIIth  chapter  of  Gibbon,  which,  though  not 
exempt  from  some  errors  of  fact  and  more  obliquities  of  sentiment, 
offers  a  masterly  sketch  of  the  spirit  and  transactions  of  the  First 
Crusade;  and  to  the  more  recent  and  ample  \vork  of  Mr.  Mills,  who 
{History  of  the  Crusades,  vol.  i.  c.  1-6)  has  industriously  exhausted 
the  stores  of  the  Latin  chroniclers,  and  executed  his  design  with 
equal  truth  and  ability. 


CAPTURE    OF    JERUSALEM.  175 


and  the  prudential  policy  of  the  conquerors  were 
to  be  exercised  in  providing  for  its  defence  ;  but  their 
vows  were  already  accomplished;  and  the  great  de- 
sign of  the  FIRST  CRUSADE  had  been  concluded  in  the 
triumphant  recovery  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 


17J3 


THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 


Ascalon. 


CHAPTER 


SECTION   I.— STATE   OF   THE   LATIN   KINGDOM. 


ITHIN  a  short  month  after  his  elec- 
tion to  fill  the  throne  of  Jerusalem, 
the  pious  and  gallant  Godfrey  of  Bou- 
illon was  summoned  into  the  field  to 
sustain  that  arduous  office  of  defender 
of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  which  his  modesty  had  pre- 
ferred to  the  regal  title.  The  Khalif  of  Egypt,  roused 
to  equal  indignation  and  alarm  by  the  intelligence  of 
the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  had  immediately  despatched  a 


STATE  OF  THE  LATIN  KINGDOM.     177 

great  army  into  Palestine;  and  the  influence  of  a 
common  religion  and  cause  attracted  numerous  hordea 
of  Turks  and  Saracens  to  the  Fatimite  standard.  The 
usual  exaggeration  of  the  Latin  chroniclers  has  swollen 
the  infidel  host  into  countless  myriads:  their  more 
authentic  record  of  the  Christian  force  shows  that  the 
bands  of  the  crusaders  had  already  dwindled,  since 
the  capture  of  the  Holy  City,  to  five  thousand  horse 
and  fifteen  thousand  foot-soldiers.  But  the  champions 
of  the  cross,  however  inferior  in  numbers,  were  flushed 
with  recent  victory,  and  animated  by  the  unconquera- 
ble energy  of  religious  and  martial  enthusiasm.  The 
armies  met  at  Ascalon ;  [August  12,  1099  :]  and  the 
organized  and  mail-clad  chivalry  of  Europe  once  more 
triumphed  over  the  disorderly  multitudes  of  Egypt, 
Syria,  and  Arabia.  The  Fatimites  fled  at  the  first 
charge  of  Godfrey  and  Tancred ;  and  the  only  resist- 
ance which  the  crusaders  encountered  was  from  a 
band  of  five  thousand  black  Africans ;  who,  after  the 
discharge  of  a  galling  flight  of  arrows  from  an  am- 
bush, astonished  the  Latins  by  a  novel  mode  of  close 
combat  with  balls  of  Iron  fastened  to  leathern  thongs, 
which  they  swung  with  terrific  effect.  But,  after  the 
first  moment  of  surprise,  the  desperate  courage  and 
rude  weapons  of  these  barbarians  were  vainly  opposed 
to  the  sharp  lances  and  physical  weight  of  the  Chris- 
tian gens-d'armerie ;  and  their  destruction  or  flight 
completed  the  easy  and  merciless  victory  of  the  cm 

eaders.     Of  the  infidel  host,  the  incredible  numbers 

12 


178  THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 

of  thirty  thousand  in  the  battle,  and  sixty  thousand 
in  the  pursuit,  are  Declared  to  have  been  slaughtered : 
while  of  the  Latins  scarcely  a  man  had  been  killed. 
An  immense  booty,  the  spoils  of  the  Egyptian  camp, 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  victors ;  and  the  standard 
and  sword  of  the  khalif,  being  alone  reserved  from 
the  division  of  the  plunder,  were  piously  suspended 
by  Godfrey  over  the  altar  of  the  Sepulchre  at  Jeru- 
salem.* 

The  victory  of  Ascalon  was  the  last  combined  ex- 
ploit of  the  heroes  of  the  first  Crusade.  Having  ac- 
complished their  vow,  and  bidden  a  farewell  to  their 
magnanimous  leader,  most  of  the  surviving  princes 
and  chieftakis  of  the  holy  war  departed  for  Europe. 
Boemond  was  established  at  Antioch,  and  Baldwin  at 
Edessa;  but  of  all  his  compeers,  Godfrey  could  in- 
duce only  the  devoted  Tancred  to  share  his  fortunes  ; 
and  no  more  than  three  hundred  knights,  and  as 
many  thousand  foot  soldiers,  remained  for  the  defence 
of  Palestine.  But  the  terror  of  the  Christian  arms 
proved,  for  a  season  at  least,  a  sufficient  protection  to 
the  new  state  ;  the  Mussulmans  were  easily  expelled 
from  the  shores  of  Lake  Genesareth ;  and  the  emirs 
of  Ascalon,  Caesarea,  and  Acre,  hastened  to  deprecate 
the  hostility  of  the  crusading  king  by  submission  and 
tribute.  The  remainder  of  Godfrey's  brief  reign  was 
disturbed  only  by  the  intrigues  of  Daimbert,  Arch- 

*  Albertus  Aquensis,  p.  290-294.     Willermus  Tyr.  p.  763-773. 


STATE  OP  THE  LATIN  KINGDOM.     179 

bishop  of  Pisa,  who  had  been  appointed  by  Pope  Pas- 
cal II.*  to  succeed  Adhemar  of  Puy  as  legate  of  the 
holy  see,  and  had  now  been  invested  with  the  patri- 
archate of  Jerusalem.  As  chief,  in  this  double  capa- 
city, of  the  Latin  church  in  the  East,  Daimbert  auda- 
ciously claimed  the  disposal  of  those  acquisitions 
which  the  heroes  of  the  Crusade  had  carved  out  with 
their  own  good  swords ;  and  both  Godfrey  and  Boe- 
inond  condescended  to  receive  from  his  hands,  as  vas- 
sals of  the  church,  the  feudal  investure  of  the  states 
of  Jerusalem  and  Antioch.  But  even  this  submission 
did  not  satisfy  the  pride  and  cupidity  of  Daimbert; 
he  claimed  the  entire  possession  of  Jerusalem  and 
Jaffa ;  and  Godfrey,  who  shrank  with  superstitious 
horror  from  the  idea  of  a  contest  with  the  church, 
was  glad  to  compound  with  the  demand  of  the  rapa- 
cious prelate,f  by  the  surrender  of  the  whole  of  the 


*  According  to  the  vulgar  belief,  Pope  Urban  II.  died  of  joy  on 
learning  the  conquest  of  Jerusalem;  but,  as  Mr.  Mills  has  observed, 
(Hist,  of  the  Crusades,  vol.  i.  268,)  the  decease  of  that  pontiff  oc- 
curred only  fifteen  days  after  the  capture  of  the  city,  and  therefore 
too  soon  to  have  been  produced  by  the  receipt  of  the  glad  intelli- 
gence in  Italy. 

f  Even  the  Archbishop  of  Tyre,  despite  of  the  zeal  for  the  su- 
premacy of  the  church  which  he  may  be  supposed  naturally  to  have 
felt,  is  disgusted  by  the  audacious  pretension  of  the  patriarch,  and 
relates  the  tale  with  indignant  candour.  Willermus  Tyr.  p.  771. 
The  truth  is,  however,  that  besides  the  intense  and  disinterested  de- 
votion of  Godfrey  to  the  church,  and  which  was  one  of  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  age,  he  could  not  dispense  with  the  aid  of  the  Pisans 
and  Genoese,  who  were  wholly  under  the  control  of  Daimbert,  not 


180  THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 

latter  city,  and  a  portion,  including  the  sepulchre 
itself,  of  the  sacred  capital.  The  patriarch  further 
extorted  the  monstrous  condition,  that  the  unreserved 
dominion  of  all  Jerusalem  should  escheat  to  his  see, 
in  case  Godfrey  died  without  issue.  [July  11,  A.  D. 
1100.]  That  event  occurred  too  shortly  for  the  hap- 
piness of  a  people  whom  the  good  prince  governed 
with  paternal  benevolence;  and  to  the  sorrow  not 
only  of  the  Christian  inhabitants  of  Palestine,  but 
even  of  their  Mussulman  tributaries,  he  breathed  his 
last  at  the  early  age  of  forty  years,  five  days  pre- 
ceding the  first  anniversary  of  his  reign.* 

On  the  death  of  Godfrey,  the  barons  of  the  Latin 
kingdom  of  Palestine  indignantly  refused  to  ratify  the 
promised  cession  which  the  patriarch  demanded ;  and 
it  was  resolved  that  the  unimpaired  rights  of  the 
crown  over  Jerusalem  should  .  be  bestowed  with  its 
temporal  sovereignty.  Tancred  desired  that  the 
election  should  fall  on  his  relative  Boemond,  Prince 
of  Antioch;  but  that  prince  had,  at  this  critical  junc- 
ture, been  made  prisoner  by  an  Armenian  chieftain, 
.whose  territories  he  had  unjustly  invaded;  and  a 
general  feeling  that  some  preference  was  due  to  the 
claims  of  the  house  of  Bouillon,  decided  the  choice  of 


venture  upon  a  quarrel  with  the  Holy  See,  whose  emissary  the  pa- 
triarch was.  He  had  no  alternative,  but  to  act  as  he  did  act,  or  to 
•bandon  his  newly  acquired  kingdom. 

*  Albert,  p.  294-299.     Guibert.  p.  537-554.     Will.  Tyr.  p.  773- 
775. 


STATE     JF    THE    LATIN    KINGDOM.  181 


Tancred.. 

the  barons  in  .favour  of  Baldwin,  Prince  of  Edessa. 
Resigning  his  principality  to  his  relative  and  name- 
sake, Baldwin  du  Bourg,  the  brother  of  Godfrey, 
hastened  to  the  Holy  City;  and,  after  some  fruitless 
opposition,  the  patriarch  solemnly  crowned  the  new 
King  of  Jerusalem  in  the  church  of  Bethlehem.  The 
memory  of  the  wrongs  which  he  had  sustained  from 
Baldwin,  inspired  Tancred  with  a  more  excusable  and 
lasting  repugnance  to  his  pretensions ;  and  refusing  to 
Swear  allegiance  to  an  enemy,  the  Italian  chieftain 


182  THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 

retired  from  Jerusalem  to  Antioch,  of  which  he 
assumed  the  regency  during  the  captivity  of  Boe- 
mond.  But  an  accommodation  was  effected  by  the 
good  offices  of  the  barons;  and  the  king  and  the  re- 
gent of  Antioch  were  left  at  leisure  to  provide  for  the 
security  of  their  states  against  the  common  Mussul- 
man enemy.*  The  character  of  Baldwin  rose  with 
his  elevation ;  and,  on  the  throne  of  Jerusalem,  he, 
who  during  the  Crusade  had  disgusted  his  compeers 
by  a  selfish  and  treacherous  ambition,  displayed  a  dis- 
interested and  magnanimous  devotion  to  his  regal 
duties,  which  won  the  respect  and  love  of  his  people, 
and  proved  him  no  unworthy  successor  of  his  brother. 
During  a  reign  of  eighteen  years,  he  not  only  sus- 
tained with  zeal  and  ability  the  arduous  office  of 
defending  the  Latin  state  from  the  assaults  of  the 
Infidels,  but  extended  its  limits  and  increased  its 
security. 

In  these  efforts  he  was  much  assisted  by  the  re- 
mains of  several  armaments  from  Europe,  which  may 
be  regarded  as  a  supplement  to  the  first  Crusade. 
The  spirit  which  had  animated  that  enterprise  still 
burned  with  undiminished  intensity;  and,  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years,  Hugh  of  Vermandois,  and 
Stephen  of  Chartres — the  same  leaders  who  had  re- 
tired with  little  honour  from  their  first  expedition — 
the  Dukes  of  Aquitaine  and  of  Bavaria,  the  Counts  of 

*  Albert,  p.  300-308.     Will.  Tyr.  p.  775,  776. 


STATE  OF  THE  LATIN  KINGDOM.     183 

Burgundy,  of  Vendome,  of  Nevers,  and  of  Parma,  and 
of  other  princes,  severally  conducted  into  Asia  whole 
armies  of  French,  Gascon,  Flemish,  German,  and 
Italian  crusaders,  whose  aggregate  has  been  computed 
by  a  modern  writer  at  the  astonishing  number  of 
little  less  than  half  a  million  of  men.*  These  suc- 
cessive hosts  took  the  same  route,  and  encountered 
the  same  sufferings  and  disasters,  from  the  dubious 
faith  of  the  Byzantine  court,  the  incessant  attacks  of 
the  Turks,  and  the  triple  scourge  of  the  sword,  famine, 
and  pestilence,  which  had  swept  off  the  myriads  of 
their  precursors.-)-  But  a  very  small  proportion  of 
those  who  had  reached  the  Bosphorus,  survived  the 
horrors  of  the  passage  through  Asia  Minor :  yet  the 
remnant  which  entered  Syria  still  fed  the  Christian 
cause  in  Palestine  with  a  constant  supply  of  veteran 
warriors;  and  by  their  aid,  and  more  especially  by 

*  Mills.  Hist,  of  Crusades,  vol.  i.  290,  note. 

|  Both  the  Counts  of  Vermandois  and  of  Chartres,  who  found 
themselves  compelled  by  the  public  contempt  of  a  chivalrous  age  to 
return  to  Palestine,  perished  in  the  attempt  to  redeem  the  fame 
which  they  had  lost  by  the  former  abandonment  of  their  crusading 
vows.  The  great  Count  of  Vermandois  died  at  Tarsus  of  wounds 
received  in  battle  with  the  Turks  of  Cilicia;  and  the  Count  of 
Chartres  only  survived  his  second  march  into  Palestine  to  be  taken 
prisoner  and  murdered  in  the  frontier  warfare  by  the  Egyptian  Mus- 
Bulmans.  He  had  been  driven  to  engage  in  the  supplementary  Cru- 
sade by  the  high-spirited  reproaches  of  his  Countess  Adela,  daughter 
of  the  Norman  conqueror,  who  had  sworn  to  allow  him  no  peace 
until  he  should  repair  his  dishonour.  He  was  father  to  Stephen,  the 
English  usurper.  Orderic  Vital,  p.  790-793.  Will.  Tyr.  781-787. 
Albert,  p.  815-325.  Anna  Comneua,  lib.  ix.  p.  331. 


184  THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 

that  of  some  maritime  expeditions  from  the  European 
shores,  many  Mussulman  invasions  were  repelled,  and 
many  conquests  achieved.  In  the  third  year  of  his 
reign,  Baldwin  I.,*  after  reducing  Azotus,  was  enabled 
to  form  the  siege  of  Acre;  and  by  the  opportune 
arrival  of  an  armament  of  seventy  Genoese  galleys, 
filled  with  crusaders,  in  the  following  spring,  that 
valuable  conquest  was  completed  after  a  protracted 
resistance.  [A.  D.  1104.]  Beritus  and  Sarepta  were 
also  reduced  and  converted  into  Christian  lordships; 
and  Sidon  became  the  next  object  of  assault.  With 
an  interval  of  four  years,  two  fleets  of  Scandinavian 

*In  the  preceding  year,  the  King  of  Jerusalem  had  narrowly 
escaped  captivity  or  death,  through  a  rash  assault  which  he  ventured 
upon  the  Egyptian  invaders  of  Palestine  with  a  vanguard  of  only  a 
few  hundred  horse.  His  followers  were  overwhelmed  by  superiot 
numbers,  and  almost  all  cut  to  pieces ;  and  it  was  on  this  occasion 
that  the  Count  of  Chartres  was  taken  and  murdered.  The  story  of 
Baldwin's  escape  presents  one  of  the  few  gleams  of  generous  senti- 
ment which  relieve  the  dark  picture  of  a  fanatical  and  savage  war- 
fare. Upon  some  former  occasion,  Baldwin  had  captured  a  noble 
Saracen  woman,  whose  flight  was  arrested  by  the  pangs  of  childbirth, 
and,  after  humanely  rendering  her  every  attention,  had  released  her  and 
her  infant  in  safety.  The  husband  was  serving  in  the  Mussulman  ranks, 
when  Baldwin,  after  the  slaughter  of  his  followers,  with  difficulty 
reached  a  castle,  whither  the  victors  immediately  pursued  him.  The 
place  was  surrounded,  and  the  capture  of  the  King  would  have  been 
inevitable,  if  the  grateful  Emir  had  not  secretly  approached  the  walla 
at  midnight,  announced  his  design  of  delivering  the  preserver  of  his 
wife  and  child,  and,  at  the  hazard  of  his  own  life,  conveyed  him  in 
safety  from  the  castle,  which  Baldwin  had  scarcely  quitted  when  it 
was  stormed,  and  the  whole  garrison  put  to  the  sword.  Will.  Tyr. 
p.  787,  788.  For  the  details  of  this  romantic  incident,  see  Michaud, 
yol.  i.  279. 


STATE    OF    THE    LATIN    KINGDOM.  185 

crusaders,  who  had  performed  the  long  voyage  from 
the  Baltic  through  the  Straits  of  Gibralter  to  the 
Syrian  shores,  [A.  D.  1115;]  co-operated  with  the 
Christian  forces  of  Palestine  in  the  siege  of  that  city; 
and  although  the  first  attempt  was  repulsed,  the 
second  proved  successful.* 

All  these  acquisitions  were  incorporated  into  the 
kingdom  of  Jerusalem.  But  a  more  important  exten- 
sion of  the  Christian  territories  in  Syria  had  mean- 
while been  effected,  and  added  to  the  number  of  dis- 
tant principalities.  The  veteran  Count  of  Thoulouse 
prevailed  upon  some  of  the  French  princes  whom,  in 
the  supplemental  Crusade,  he  had  guided  with  the 
remains  of  their  forces  through  Asia  Minor,  to  subju- 
gate Tortosa,  on  the  coast  of  Syria,  for  his -benefit. 
The  nucleus  of  a  new  state  was  thus  formed,  which 
Raymond  employed  his  Provengal  troops  in  extend- 
ing ;  but  he  died  before  -he  could  accomplish  the  re- 
duction of  the  city  of  Tripoli,  the  object  of  his  ambi- 
tion, and  the  destined  capital  of  his  Oriental  domi- 
nions. Some  years  afterward,  that  conquest  was  ef- 
fected for  his  eldest  son  Bertrand,  by  the  King  of 
Jerusalem,  seconded  by  all  the  Latin  princes  of  the 
East,  and  a  Pisan  and  Genoese  fleet.  Tripoli,  with 
its  surrounding  district  and  dependencies,  was  then 
erected  by  Baldwin  into  a  county  for  the  house  of 
Thoulouse  ;  [A.  D.  1109 ;]  and  this  new  state,  which, 

*  Albert,  p.  345-365.     Will.  Tyr.  p.  791-805. 


186  THE    SECOND    CRUSADB. 

although  feudally  subject  to  the  crown  of  Jerusalem, 
partook  in  extent  and  dignity  rather  of  the  charac- 
ter of  a  sovereign  principality  than  of  a  mere  fief, 
contributed  much  by  its  position  between  the  territo- 
ries of  Antioch  and  Palestine  to  secure  and  cement 
the  communication  and  strength  of  the  Christian 
power.*  But  the  affairs  of  Antioch  were  perpetually 
embroiled  by  the  restless  ambition  of  its  prince. 
During  his  captivity  in  Armenia,  the  government  of 
that  state  was  ably  administered  by  Tancred;  but, 
after  obtaining  his  release,  Boemond  by  his  refusal  to 
acknowledge  the  feudal  superiority  of  the  Eastern 
Emperor  Alexius,  involved  himself  in  a  new  war,  in 
which  he  was  assisted  by  the  Pisans.  The  Byzantine 
arms  prevailing  by  land,  Boemond  sailed  to  Europe  to 
plot  a  diversion  against  the  Grecian  territories  of  his 
ancient  enemy ;  and,  having  succeeded  by  his  martial 
reputation  in  assembling  a  large  army  of  crusaders  in 
France  and  Italy,  he  landed  at  Durazzo.  Alexius 
was  then  glad  to  conclude  an  accommodation  with 
him;  and  the  crusading  forces  pursuing  the  usual 
route  through  the  Byzantine  territories  to  Palestine, 
the  Prince  of  Antioch  returned  to  Italy,  where  he  died 
in  the  following  year.  After  his  decease,  the  noble 
minded  Tancred  continued  to  rule  the  Syrian  prin- 
cipality, until  his  chivalrous  career  was  appropriately 
terminated  by  a  mortal  wound  which  he  had  received 

*  Will.  Tyr.  p.  791-796. 


STATE    OF    THE    LATIN    KINGDOM.         187 

in  battle ;  and,  after  some  uninteresting  revolutions 
in  the  government  of  Antioch,  the  eldest  son  of  Boe- 
mond,  who  bore  his  name,  finally  arrived  in  Asia,  and 
successfully  claimed  the  principality  as  his  inheritance.* 
Meanwhile,  the  isolated  state  of  Edessa,  surrounded 
on  all  sides  by  Armenian  and  Turkish  enemies,  was 
only  preserved  from  destruction  by  the  heroic  valour 
of  its  count,  Baldwin  du  Bourg,  and  his  relative,  Jos- 
celyn  de  Courtenay,  a  member  of  a  noble  French 
house,  which  was  rendered  more  illustrious  by  his 
exploits  in  the  East  than  by  the  subsequent  alliance 
of  a  collateral  branch  with  the  royal  blood  of  France, 
and  a  succession  of  three  emperors  to  the  Latin  throne 
of  Constantinople^ 

*  Radulphus  Cad.  p.  327-330.  Fulcher.  p.  419,  420.  Albert, 
p.  340-354.  Will.  Tyr.  p.  792-807.  Anna  Cpmnena,  lib.  xiv.  p. 
329-419. 

f  The  adventure  and  vicissitudes  of  fortune  which  Joscelyn  de 
Courtenay  underwent  in  the  East,  as  well  as  his  chivalrous  deeds, 
might  form  the  groundwork  of  a  tale  of  romance.  He  had  ori- 
ginally accompanied  the  Count  of  Chartres  from  Europe  in  the  sup- 
plementary Crusade,  and  settled  at  Edessa  with  his  relation  Baldwin, 
together  with  whom  he  was  taken  prisoner  in  a  defeat  which  the 
crusaders  sustained  from  the  Emir  of  Aleppo.  After  five  years'  cap- 
tivity, the  friends  were  released  by  the  stratagem  of  some  Armenian 
partizans,  who,  entering  the  fortress  in  which  they  were  confined,  in 
the  disguise  of  monks  and  traders,  surprised  and  slew  the  Turkish 
garrison.  Baldwin  then  bestowed  a  portion  of  the  Edessine  territo- 
ries in  sovereignty  upon  Courtenay.  But,  upon  some  jealousy,  Jos- 
celyn was  treacherously  lured  to  Edessa  by  his  benefactor,  put  to  the 
torture,  and  compelled  to  resign  his  domains.  Indignant  at  this 
treatment,  Courtenay  withdrew  to  Jerusalem,  where  his  services 
against  the  infidels  were  rewarded  by  Baldwin  I.  with  the  Tiberiad 


188  THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 

By  the  death  of  his  kinsman,  Baldwin  I.,  the  Count 
of  Edessa  was  called  to  receive  the  crown  of  Jerusalem. 
On  the  junction  of  new  bands  of  crusaders  from  Eu- 
rope, Baldwin  I.  had  been  encouraged  to  revenge  the 
incessant  attacks  of  the  Fatimite  khalifs  of  Egypt, 
by  an  invasion  of  that  country;  and  his  career  of 
victory  on  this  expedition  was  cut  short  only  by 
the  hand  of  death.*  Leaving  no  issue,  he,  with  his 
last  breath,  recommended  his  cousin  Baldwin  du 
Bourg  for  his  successor;  [A.  D.  1118;]  and,  after  the 
retreat  of  the  crusading  host  into  Palestine,  which 
was  the  immediate  consequence  of  the  dejection  pro- 
duced by  his  death,  the  Latin  prelate  and  barons 
were  induced,  by  respect  for  his  memory,  and  the 
claims  of  consanguinity,  as  well  as  by  the  advice  of 
Joscelyn  de  Courtenay,  to  confirm  his  choice.  Bald- 

for  a  fief.  Notwithstanding  the  wrongs  by  which  his  patron  had 
cancelled  former  benefits,  Joscelyn  generously  promoted  his  elevation 
to  the  throne  of  Jerusalem,  and  received  the  county  of  Edessa  from 
his  gratitude.  Baldwin  a  second  time  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
infidels,  after  he  had  become  king,  Joscelyn  obtained  his  liberation 
among  the  consequences  of  the  fall  of  Tyre.  The  death  of  the  hero 
at  an  advanced  age  was  a  worthy  termination  of  his  exploits.  Being 
unable  to  sit  on  horseback,  he  was  carried  in  a  litter  to  the  field ;  the 
Mussulmans  fled  at  the  very  report  of  his  presence ;  and  he  died 
giving  thanks  to  Heaven  that  the  mere  fame  of  his  ancient  prowess 
sufficed  to  scatter  the  enemies  of  God.  Will.  Tyr.  p.  853. 

*  At  El-Arish,  supposed  to  be  the  ancient  Rbinocorura,  a  frontier 
town  of  Syria  and  Egypt,  in  the  year  1118,  on  his  return  from  an 
expedition  against  the  Soldan  of  Egypt.  On  his  death-bed  he  re- 
quested that  his  body  might  be  deposited  beside  that  of  his  brother 
Godfrey  at  Jerusalem. 


STATE    OF    THE    KINGDOM.  189 

win  du  Bourg  was  therefore  elected  without  opposition 
to  fill  the  vacant  throne,  and  immediately  recompensed 
the  services  of  Courtenay  by  resigning  to  him  the  pos- 
session of  the  county  of  Edessa.  The  principal  event 
in  the  reign  of  Baldwin  II.  was  the  reduction  of  Tyre. 
The  Doge  of  Venice,  Ordelafo  Falieri,  who  had  led 
the  navy  of  his  republic  on  a  martial  pilgrimage  ^o 
the  coast  of  Palestine,  was  induced,  after  bargaining 
for  the  possession  and  sovereignty  of  one  third  of  that 
city,*  to  co-operate  in  the  undertaking ;  and  by  a  siege 
of  five  months  the  difficult  conquest  was  achieved. 
[A.  D.  1124.]  Tyre  was  erected  into  an  archbishopric 
under  the  patriarchate  of  Jerusalem ;  and  by  the  cap- 
ture of  a  city,  which,  though  fallen  from  its  ancient 
grandeur,  was  still  the  most  opulent  port  on  the  Sy- 
rian coast,  and  had  formed  the  last  strong-hold  of  the 
Mussulmans  in  Palestine,  the  Latin  power  may  be 

*  All  the  maritime  republics  of  Italy,  with  their  characteristic 
mercantile  cupidity,  extorted  great  commercial  advantages  as  the  price 
of  their  services  to  the  crusaders.  At  Acre,  the  Genoese  obtained  a 
street  and  many  privileges  in  return  for  the  aid  of  their  fleet  in  the 
siege,  (Will.  Tyr.  p.  791 ;)  the  Pisans,  by  treaty  with  Tancred,  were 
rewarded  in  like  manner  for  their  services  to  the  state  of  Antioch, 
with  the  property  of  a  street  both  in  that  capital  and  in  Laodicea, 
(Muratori,  Antiq.  Ital.  Med.  jEvi,  Diss.  30 ;)  the  Venetians,  in  ad- 
dition to  their  settlement  at  Tyre,  received  by  stipulation  a  church 
and  street  at  Jerusalem ;  and  throughout  the  Christian  possessions 
in  Palestine  and  Syria  generally,  the  three  republics  contended,  often 
with  bloodshed,  for  the  right  of  establishing  places  of  exchange,  and 
enjoying  the  common  or  exclusive  privileges  of  trade.  Sabellicus, 
Hist.  Venct.  dec.  i.  lib.  vi.  Marini,  Storia  Civ.  e  Polit.  del.  Com* 
mercio  de'  Vcnezidni,  vol.  iii.  lib.  i.  cap  4-6,  &c. 


190 


THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 


Ruins  of  Tyre, 


said  to  have  attained  its  greatest  consolidation  and 
security.* 

When  the  kingdom  of  Jerusalem  had  thus  acquired 
its  utmost  extent,  it  embraced  all  the  country  of  Pa- 
lestine between  the  sea-coast  and  the  deserts  of  Ara- 
bia, from  the  city  of  Beritus  on  the  north  to  the  fron- 
tiers of  Egypt  on  the  south  :  forming  a  territory  about 
sixty  league's  in  length  and  thirty  in  breadth;  and 
exclusive  of  the  county  of  Tripoli,  which  stretched 

*  Albert,  p.  365-377.  Fulcher.  p.  423-440.  Will.  Tyr.  p.  805- 
846,  passim. 


STATE    OF    THE    LATIN    KINGDOM.  191 

northward  from  Beritus  to  the  borders  of  the  Anti- 
ochan  principality.  The  whole  territory,  both  of  the 
kingdom  and  county,  was  occupied  by  the  warriors  of 
the  cross,  upon  the  strictest  principles  of  a  feudal  set- 
tlement, with  all  the  subdivisions  and  conditions  of 
tenure  which  belonged  to  that  martial  polity.  Its 
adoption  was  suggested*  not  more  by  every  feeling 
and  custom  of  the  age  which  the  conquerors  had 


*  The  institution  of  the  feudal  code  of  Jerusalem  dates  from  the 
first  year  of  the  Latin  conquest,  and  its  compilation  was  directed  by 
Godfrey  de  Bouillon  himself;  who,  with  the  advice  of  the  patriarch 
and  barons,  appointed  several  commissioners  among  the  crusaders 
most  learned  in  the  feudal  statutes  and  customs  of  Europe  to  frame 
a  body  of  similar  laws  for  the  new  kingdom.  Their  digest  was  so- 
lemnly accepted  in  a  general  assembly  of  prelates  and  barons ;  and, 
under  the  title  of  the  Assises  de  Jerusalem,  became  thenceforth  the 
recognized  code  of  the  Latin  state.  The  original  instrument,  which 
was  deposited  in  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  and  revised  and  considerably 
enlarged  by  the  legislation  of  succeeding  reigns,  is  said  to  have  been 
lost  at  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Saladin ;  but,  during  the  last 
agony  of  the  expiring  state,  the  provisions  of  the  code,  which  had 
been  preserved  by  traditionary  and  customary  authority,  were  again 
collected  in  a  written  form,  A.  D.  1250,  by  Jean  d'Ibelin,  Count  of 
Jafik,  one  of  the  four  great  barons  of  the  kingdom ;  and  a  second 
and  final  revision  was  prepared  in  Cyprus,  A.  D.  1369,  by  sixteen 
commissioners,  for  the  use  of  the  Latin  kingdom  in  that  island. 
From  a  MS.  of  this  Cypriot  version,  in  the  Vatican  library,  was  pub- 
lished at  Paris,  A.  D.  1690,  by  Thaumassiere,  the  edition  of  the 
Assist  de  Jerusalem,  to  which  we  are  indebted  for  our  acquaintance 
with  this  "  precious  monument,"  as  a  great  writer  has  justly  termed 
it,  "of  feudal  jurisprudence."  But  for  the  history  of  the  code,  see 
Assises.  de  Jerusalem  apud  Thaumassiere,  Preface.  Consult  also 
Gibbon,  xi.  91-98  for  a  summary,  and  L'Esprit  des  Croisades,  IT. 
484. 


192  THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 

brought  with  them  from  Europe,  than  by  the  obvious 
necessity  of  such  a  state  of  perpetual  preparation  fof 
the  public  defence  against  the  incessant  assaults  of 
their  infidel  enemies ;  and  it  is  almost  needless  to 
repeat,  that,  under  no  other  form  of  settlement,  pro- 
bably, could  the  Latin  conquests  have  been  preserved 
by  the  scanty  array  of  their  resident  defenders  in  so 
unremitting  a  warfare  with  the  myriads  of  Turkish  and 
Egyptian  Mussulmans.  At  its  highest  computation, 
indeed,  the  feudal  force  of  the  kingdom  of  Jerusalem 
would  appear  very  inadequate  to  its  protection.  3?he 
four  great  fiefs  of  Jaffa,  Galilee,  Csesarea,  and  Tripoli, 
with  the  royal  cities  of  Jerusalem,  Tyre,  Acre,  and 
Naplousa,  and  the  other  lordships  in  chief  of  inferior 
extent,  which  composed  the  whole  kingdom,  owed  and 
could  furnish  the  services  of  no  more  than  two  thou- 
sand five  hundred  knights  or  mounted  men-at-arms ; 
and  their  followers,  with  the  contingent  of  the  eccle- 
siastical and  commercial  communities,  all  of  which 
were  bound  to  render  aid  to  the  king  on  lower  feudal 
tenures  than  the  knights'  fees,  constituted  a  militia, 
for  the  greater  part,  probably,  of  archers  on  foot,  not 
exceeding  twelve  thousand  in  number.*  It  may  be 


*  Gibbon  (ch.  Iviii.)  has  fallen  into  an  error  in  estimating  the 
number  of  knights'  fees  in  the  whole  kingdom  of  Jerusalem,  exclu- 
eive  of  Tripoli,  as  six  hundred  and  sixty-six,  and  appears  to  have 
ecufounded  the  contingent  of  the  four  royal  cities,  which  alone,  ac- 
cording to  the  Assises,  furnished  that  number,  with  the  total  knightly 
array  of  the  realm.  He  cites  Sanutus,  indeed,  (Seereta  Fidelium 


STATE    OF    THE    LATIN    KINGDOM.          193 

inferred  that  the  whole  population  of  martial  colonists 
from  Europe  could  scarcely  supply  even  this  provi- 
sion, scanty  as  it  was,  for  the  public  defence ;  and  the 
policy  or  the  domestic  wants  of  the  conquerors  encou- 
raged the  settlement  in  Palestine  of  the  native  Chris- 
tians of  Syria  and  Armenia,  and  even  of  Mussulman 
tributaries  for  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  and  the  sup- 
ply of  mechanical  labour.  From  the  commingling  of 
blood  between  the  crusaders  and  all  these  people  in 
the  enfeebling  climate  of  the  East,  was  produced  a 
spurious  and  effeminate  race,  contemptuously  desig- 
nated by  the  writers  of  their  age  as  Pullani,  or  Pou- 
lains,  who  had  so  utterly  degenerated  from  the  valour 
of  their  European  fathers,  as  to  fill  the  land  without 
contributing  to  the  strength  of  the  state.* 

Crucis,  lib.  iii.)  as  stating  the  number  of  knights'  fees  in  each  of 
the  great  baronies  of  Jaffa,  Galilee,  and  Caesarea,  at  one  hundred 
oiily,  but   the   very  superior  authority  of  the    rfssises   rates  them 
expressly  at  five  hundred  each.     Assises,  c.  324—331. 
*  Vide  Du  Caage,  Gloss,  v.  Pullani. 


It  ' 


194 


THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 


SECTION  H. 

ORIGIN  OF   THE   ORDERS   OF   RELIGIOUS   CHIVALRY. 

HE  feudal  army  of  the  kingdom 
of  Jerusalem,  and  the  casual 
reinforcement  of  new  crusaders 
from  Europe,  formed  not  the 
only  defences  of  Palestine. 
The  union  of  fanatical  and 
martial  ardour  gave  birth  to 
two  famous  orders  of  religious 
chivalry,  which  were  specially 
enrolled  under- the  banners  of 
the  Cross;  and  the  Christian  cause  in  the  East  was 
long  sustained  by  the  emulous  valour,  though  not 
unfrequently  injured  by  the  less  worthy  rivalry,  of 
the  Knights  of  the  hospital  of  St.  John  and  of  the 
Temple  of  Solomon.  The  origin  of  both  these  re- 
markable institutions,  which  rose  to  celebrity  by 


ORDERS    OF    RELIGIOUS    CHIVALRY.        195 

martial  achievement,  may  be  traced  to  purposes 
simply  of  pious  and  practical  benevolence.  Long 
before  the  era  of  the  Crusades,  some  Italian  merchants 
purchased  a  license  from  the  Mussulman  rulers  of 
Jerusalem  to  found  in  that  city  an  hospital,  together 
with  a  chapel,  which  they  dedicated  to  St.  John  the 
Eleemosynary — a  canonized  patriarch  of  Alexandria — 
for  the  relief  and  wayfaring  entertainment  of  sick  and 
poor  pilgrims.  By  the  alms  of  the  wealthier  Chris- 
tian visitants  of  the  Sepulchre,  and  by  charitable  con- 
tributions which  the  merchants  of  Amalfi  zealously 
collected  in  Italy,  and  as  religiously  transmitted  to 
Jerusalem,  the  establishment  was  supported ;  and  its 
duties  were  performed  by  a  few  Benedictine  monks, 
with  the  aid  of  such  lay  brethren  among  the 
European  pilgrims  as  were  induced  to  extend  their 
penitential  vows  to  a  protracted  residence  in  the  Holy 
Land.*  Perhaps  through  the  habitual  respect  of  the 
Mohammedan  mind  for  charitable  foundations,  the 
Hospital  of  St.  John  might  escape,  but  certainly  it 
was  suffered  to  outlive,  the  storms  of  Egyptian  and 
Turkish  persecution;  and  when  Jerusalem  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  crusaders,  the  house  was  joyfully 
opened  for  the  reception  and  cure  of  the  wounded 
warriors.  The  pious  Godfrey  arid  his  companions 
were  edified  by  the  active  and  self-denying  benevo- 
lence of  the  brethren  of  the  hospital,  who  not  only  de- 

*Will.Tyr.p.934,  935. 


196  THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 

voted  themselves  to  the  care  of  the  suffering,  but 
were  contented  with  the  coarsest  fare,  while  their 
patients  were  supplied  with  bread  of  the  purest  flour. 
By  the  grateful  munificence  of  Godfrey  himself,  the 
hospital  was  endowed  with  an  estate  in  Brabant,  its 
first  foreign  possessions ;  many  of  the  -crusaders,  from 
religious  motives,  embraced  its  charitable  service; 
and  the  society  speedily  acquired  so  much  respect 
and  importance,  that  the  lay-members,  separating 
from  the  monks  of  the  Chapel  of  St.  John  the  Almo- 
ner, formed  themselves  into  a  distinct  community, 
assumed  a  religious  habit, — a  long  black  mantle  with 
a  white  cross  of  eight  points  on  the  left  breast — and 
placed  their  hospital  under  the  higher  patronage  of 
St.  John  the  Baptist.  [A.  D.  1113.]  By  the  patriarch 
of  Jerusalem,  their  triple  monastic  vows  of  obedience, 
chastity,  and  poverty,  were  accepted;  and  a  bull  of 
Pope  Paschal  II.  confirmed  the  institution,  received 
the  fraternity  under  the  special  protection  of  the 
Holy  See,  and  invested  it  with  many  valuable  privi- 
leges.* 

The  next  transition  of  the  Order  to  a  military  cha- 
racter is  less  accurately  recorded;  but  the  change 
may  be  referred  in  general  terms  to  the  reign  of  Bald- 
win II.:  since  the  services  in  arms  of  its  brethren 
under  that  prince  are  acknowledged  in  a  papal  bull.f 

*  See  the  Statutes  of  the  Order  in  Vertot,  Hist,  des  Chevaliers  de 
St.  Jean  de  Jerusalem.     Appendix. 
f  Ibid. 


ORDERS  OF  RELIGIOUS  CHIVALRY.    197 

In  fact,  the  constant  jeopardy-  in  which  the  Latin 
State  was  placed  by  the  assaults  of  the  Infidels,  ad- 
mitted, as  we  have  seen,  of  no  exemption  to  any  com- 
munity in  the  kingdom,  whether  lay  or  ecclesiastical, 
from  actively  contributing  to  the  public  defence ;  and 
the  martial  habits  and  feelings  of  the  crusaders  of 
knightly  rank  who  had  enrolled  themselves  in  the 
fraternity  of  the  Hospital,  would  naturally  suggest  the 
honourable  preference  of  a  personal  to  a  deputed 
service.  The  revenues  of  the  Order,  by  the  increase 
of  its  endowments,  were  already  far  more  than  suf- 
ficient to  supply  the  charitable  uses  of  the  Hospital; 
and  it  was  magnanimously  resolved  to  devote  the 
surplus  to  the  defence  of  the  state.  'The  former 
soldiers  of  the  Cross  resumed  their  military,  without 
discarding  their  religious  garb  and  profession;  the 
union  of  chivalric  and  religious  sentiment,  however 
discordant  in  modern  ideas,  was  equally  congenial  to 
the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  proper  to  the  great  cause  of 
the  Crusades;  and  thenceforth  the  banner  and  the 
battle-cry  of  the  knights  of  St.  John  were  seen  and 
heard  foremost  and  loudest  in  every  encounter  with 
the  Paynim  enemy.  The  government  of  the  Order 
was  vested  in  the  grand-master' and  general  council  of 
the  knights,  all  of  whom  were  required  to  be  of  noble 
birth ;  a  distinct  body  of  regular  clergy  was  provided 
for  the  offices  of  religion ;  and  a  third  and  inferior 
class  of  sergeants,  or  serving  brethren,  both  swelled 
the  martial  array  of  the  knightly  fraternity,  and  dis- 


198 


THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 


Grand-Master  of  the  Knights  of  Malta. 

charged  the  civil  duties  of  the  hospital.*  The  re- 
nown which  the  order  acquired  in  the  fields  of  Pales- 
tine soon  attracted  the  nobility  from  all  parts  of 
Europe  to  its  standard ;  admiration  of  both  its  pious 
and  chivalric  purposes  multiplied,  throughout  the 
West,  endowments  of  land  and  donations  of  money; 

*  Vertot  ubi  suprd. 


ORDERS    OF    RELIGIOUS    CHIVALRY. 


199 


Grand-Marshal  of  the  Knightt  of  Malta. 

and  the  rents  of  nineteen  thousand  farms,  adminis- 
tered by  preceptories  or  commanderies,  as  the  prin- 
cipal houses  were  termed,  which  the  knights  esta- 
blished in  every  Christian  country,  supplied  a  per- 
petual revenue  to  their  hospital  in  Palestine,  and 
served  to  maintain  its  regular  military  force.* 

*  Matthew  Paris,  Hist.  Major,  p.  544. 


200  THE     SECOND    CRUSADE. 

When  the  Christians  were  driven  from  Palestine, 
the  knights  of  St.  John  settled  on  the  island  of 
Cyprus,  whence  they  were  soon  driven  by  the  Turks. 
They  then  went  to  the  Island  of  Rhodes.  [1310.] 
From  thence  they  were  driven  to  Malta,  which 
was  given  to  them  by  Charles  V.  in  1530.  Their 
position  on  this  island  has  been  retained  to  the 
present  day,  and  they  bear  the  name  of  Knights  of 
Malta. 

The  institution  of  the  Order  of  the  Temple  of  Solo- 
mon was  of  later  date  than  the  adoption  of  a  military 
character  by  the  friars  of  St.  John;  [A.  D.  1118  ;]  and 
the  Templars  in  their  pristine  state  of  humility  and 
poverty  owed  more  obligations  to  the  Hospitallers,  by 
whom  they  were  originally  fed  and  clothed,  than 
their  successors,  in  the  days  of  their  pride  and  power, 
cared  to  acknowledge  or  strove  to  repay.  The  ori- 
ginal design  of  their  association  differed  from  that  of 
the  Hospital,  in  having  united  from  the  outset  the 
martial  with  a  charitable  profession.  Even  after  the 
conquest  of  the  Holy  Land  by  the  crusaders,  the 
roads  to  Jerusalem  from  the  ports  and  northern 
frontiers  oT  Palestine  continued  to  be  infested  by 
bands  of  Turks,  who  indulged  at  once  their  thirst  of 
plunder  and  their  hatred  of  the  Christian  name,  by 
the  robbery  and  murder  of  the  numerous  defenceless 
pilgrims  from  Europe.  The  dangers  which  beset  these 
poor  votaries  to  the  shrine  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre 


202  THE    SECOND    CRUSADE, 

from  the  cruelty  of  the  Infidels,  roused  the  pious  com. 
passion  and  chivalric  indignation  of  Geoffrey  de  St. 
Aldemar,  Hugh  de  Payens,  and  other  French  knights 
in  Palestine,  who  bound  themselves  mutually  by  oath 
to  devote  their  lives  to  the  relief  and  safe  conduct  of 
all  pilgrims.  As  their  association  partook  of  a  re- 
ligious character,  they  followed  the  example  of  the 
fraternity  of  the  Hospital  by  assuming  the  monastic 
vows  and  garb;  and  when  Baldwin  I.  marked  his  ap- 
probation of  their  purpose  by  assigning  them  part  of 
his  own  palace  for  a  residence  at  Jerusalem,  the  title 
which  they  adopted  of  the  poor  soldiery  of  Christ  and 
of  the  Temple  of  Solomon,  was  suggested  by  the  con- 
tiguity of  their  quarters  to  the  site  of  that  sacred 
edifice.  The  maintenance  which  they  at  first  received 
from  the  charity  of  the  Hospital  of  St.  John  was  soon 
more  independently  provided  by  the  respect  which 
was  won  for  their  order  throughout  Christendom 
through  the  grateful  report  of  the  pilgrims;  with  the 
increase  of  ^their  means  and  numbers  they  aspired  to 
extend  their  humbler  service  of  guarding  the  roads  of 
Palestine  to  the  more  glorious  adventure  of  offensive 
warfare  against  the  Infidels;  and,  thenceforth,  in 
wealth,  privileges,  and  power,  and  in  heroic  enter- 
prise, the  history  of  their  rise  differs  little  from  that 
of  the  Hospitallers.  The  constitution  of  the  two 
orders  was  similar;  and  the  number  of  preceptories 
and  estates  possessed  by  the  Templars  in  every  king- 


204  THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 

dom  of  Europe,*  were  immense  sources  of  influence 
and  opulence,  second  only  in  degree  to  those  of  the 
elder  fraternity.^  But  in  honourable  estimation  and 
martial  renown,  no  superiority  could  with  justice  be 
claimed  by  either  order;  and  admission  into  the 
ranks  of  both  _was  sought  with  equal  avidity  by  the 
flower  of  the  European  chivalry.  In  externals,  the 
knights  of  the  Temple  were  distinguished  from  their 
rivals  by  their  use  of  a  long  white  cloak  or  mantle, 
with  a  straight  red  cross  on  the  left  breast.  The 
banner  and  seal  of  the  order  in  the  maturity  of  its 
splendour  also  bore  a  cross  gules  in  a  field  argent :  for 
its  earlier  and  well-known  device,  presenting  the 
singular  emblem  of  two  men  on  one  horse,  although 
intended  by  the  pious  humility  of  its  founders  to  com- 
memorate the  original  poverty  of v  the  brotherhood, 
was  not  long  permitted  to  survive  the  condition  which 
it  had  expressed.! 

*  In  England,  both  orders  early  acquired  large  possessions.  The 
principal  preceptory  of  each  was  established  in  London :  that  of  the 
Hospitallers  at  Clerkcuwell,  and  of  the  Templars  in  Holborn,  whence 
it  was  removed  into  Fleet  Street.  Stow,  lib.  iv.  62.  Dudgale, 
Origines  Jurid.  c.  57. 

f  Both  Hospitallers  and  Templars  were  prohibited  from  possessing 
any  private  property;  but  their  vow  of  poverty,  by  a  convenient 
interpretation,  was  only  personal,  and  did  not  extend  to  their  enjoy> 
ing  in  common  the  enormous  wealth  of  their  orders. 

t  For  the  rise  of  the  Order  of  Templars,  see  passim,  the  twelfth 
book  of  William  of  Tyre.  Also  Knyghton,  p.  2382,  Brompton,  p. 
1008,  and  Matt.  Paris  (Hist.  Minor.')  p.  419,  &c. 


FALL    OF    EDESSA. 


205 


SECTION 


FALL   OF  EDESSA.— THE   PREACHING  OF   THE   SECOND 
CRUSADE. 

URING  the  reign  of  Bald- 
1,  win  II.  the  safety  and  ex- 
ij,  tension  of  the  kingdom  of 
Palestine  were   largely  in- 
|  debted   to  the  prowess   of 
the  knights  of  the  Hospital 
and   Temple;    and    before 
the    decease   of    that    mo- 
narch, the  two  orders  had 
become  the  most  powerful  champions  of  the  Latin 


206  THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 

power.  As  Baldwin  II.  had  no  sons,  he  obtained  the 
consent  of  his  nobles  and  prelates  to  nominate,  as  his 
successor,  Foulques,  Count  of  Anjou,  whom  he  had 
married  to  his  eldest  daughter  Melisinda.  [A.  D.*1131.] 
In  his  youth,  Foulques  had  visited  Palestine  as  a  cru- 
sader, at  the  head  of  one  hundred  knights  and  men-at- 
arms,  and  had  left  so  favourable  an  opinion  of  his  chi- 
valric  qualities  on  the  mind  of  Baldwin  that,  nine 
years  afterward,  when  he  had  become  a  widower,  the 
king  invited  him  from  France  to  receive  the  hand  of 
the  princess.  Dazzled  by  the  prospect  of  a  royal 
alliance  and  a  matrimonial  crown,  the  Count  aban- 
doned his  extensive  French  fiefs  to  his  son;*  and  on 
his  arrival  in  the  Holy  Land,  his  nuptials  with  Me- 
lisinda  were  solemnized,  and  he  was  immediately 
acknowledged  as  the  heir  to  the  throne.  The  death 
of  Baldwin,  which  shortly  ensued,  gave  him  the  undis- 


*  That  son  was  Geoffrey  Plantagenet,  the  husband  of  the  Empress 
Matilda,  and  father  "of  Henry  II.  It  is  strange  that  William  of 
Tyre,  the  eulogist  of  Foulques,  should  represent  him  as  sixty  years  of 
age  when  he  arrived  in  Palestine  for  the  second  time  to  celebrate  his 
nuptials  with  Melisinda;  for  the  learned  Benedictine  authors  of 
Ij 'Art  de  verifier  les  Dates  (Article,  Comtes  d' Anjou)  prove  that  he 
was  born  only  A.  D.  1092;  and  his  reign  in  Palestine  commenced 
A.  D.  1131.  His  family  had  long  been  famous  for  their  passion  of 
making  pilgrimages  to  the  Holy  Land;  and  one  of  them,  who 
travelled  thither  before  the  era  of  the  Crusades,  having  bound  hia 
servants  by  oath  to  do  whatsoever  he  should  require,  compelled  them 
publiily  to  scourge  his  naked  back  before  the  altar  of  the  Sepulchre, 
while  in  penitential  cries  he  implored  the  pardon  of  Heaven  for  hia 
gins.  Malnisbury,  p.  307 


FALL    OF    EDESSA.  207 

puted  possession  of  the  crown;  and, during  a  reign  of 
thirteen  years,  Foulques,  without  performing  any  bril- 
liant achievement,  sufficiently  emulated  the  courage 
and  virtues  of  his  predecessors  in  the  defence  and 
government  of  the  kingdom.  His  decease  left  the 
state  in  the  hands  of  his  widow  Melisinda,  and  their 
son  Baldwin  III.,  then  only  thirteen  years  old,  who 
were  crowned  together;  and  it  was  soon  after  the 
martial  sceptre  of  the  house  of  Bouillon  had  thus  de- 
volved upon  a  woman  and  a  minor,  [A.  D.  1144,]  that 
the  Christian  power  in  the  East  received  the  first  dis- 
astrous shock  from  the  Mussulman  arms.  Since  the 
death  of  Joscelyn  de  Courtenay,  the  defence  of  the 
principality  of  Edessa  had  been  feebly  sustained  by 
his  son,  who  inherited  neither  his  valour  nor  ability. 
But  its  safety  was  more  fatally  compromised  by  the 
selfish  indifference  or  still  more  criminal  treachery  of 
the  princes  of  Antioch,  who  coolly  witnessed  the  dan- 
ger of  a  state  which,  by  its  position  beyond  the 
Euphrates,  formed  the  great  advanced  post  of  the 
Latin  settlements  in  Syria;  and  which,  therefore, 
every  motive  of  honour  and  policy  should  have  im. 
polled  them  to  succour.  Profiting  by  the  disunion  of 
the  Christians,  Zenghi,  the  Turkish  Emir  of  Mosul  or 
Aleppo,  whose  martial  activity  and  skill  had  already 
rendered  his  power  formidable  during  the  life  of 
Joscelyn  de  Courtenay,  suddenly  entered  the  State  of 
Edessa  with  an  overwhelming  force ;  laid  siege  to  its 
capita] ;  and,  before  the  levies  of  the  kingdom  of 


208  THE    SECOND  CRUSADE. 

Jerusalem  could  march  to  its  relief,  took  the  city  by 
storm.* 

The  intelligence  of  the  fall  of  Edessa  startled  the 
Christian  residents  in  Palestine  from  lethargic  indif- 
ference to  an  alarming  discovery  of  the  renovation  of 
the  Turkish  power  on  that  frontier;  [A.  D.  1145 ;]  and 
the  first  burst  of  shame  and  consternation  excited 
among  the  guardians  of  the  Holy  Land  by  the  dis- 
graceful loss  and  impending  danger,  was  naturally  fol- 
lowed by  earnest  solicitations  for  succour  from  Europe. 
Throughout  every  country  of  Western  Christendom, 
the  appeal  was  received  with  a  general  enthusiasm 
little  inferior  to  that  which,  half  a  century  before,  had 
stimulated  the  great  design  of  the  first  Crusade.  The 
martial  and  religious  feelings  of  Europe  were  provoked 
to  indignation  by  the  report  of  the  triumph  of  the 
infidels;  and  this  universal  spirit  was  already*  pre- 
pared for  a  second  mighty  effort  of  fanaticism,  when 
it  was  roused  into  action  by  the  master  mind  of  the 
age.  [1146.]  The  report  of  the  calamity  which 
had  befallen,  and  of  the  increasing  perils  which  threat- 
ened, the  Christian  cause  in  Palestine,  affected  his 
ardent  temper  with  powerful  emptions  of  religious 
zeal ;  and  his  resolution  to  preach  a  new  Crusade  was 
supported  by  the  private  friendship  and  the  public 
wishes  of  Pope  Eugenius  III.,  as  well  as  by  the  re- 

f  Will.  Tyr.  p.  844-893.  For  the  exploits  of  Zenghi,  sec  also  De 
Quignes,  Hitf.  Gin.  des  fluns,  vol.  ii.  lib.  xiii.,  and  the  Arabic  writers 
therein  abridged. 


FALL    OP    EDESSA.  209 

spect  and  influence  which  his  virtues  and  talents  had 
deservedly  acquired  throughout  Europe.  Not  less 
than  the  distinguished  part  which  he  had  already 
filled  in  ecclesiastical  affairs,  do  the  nobility  of 
his  birth,  the  uniform  sanctity  of  his  life,  and  the 
really  great  attainments  of  his  genius  and  learning, 
place  him  at  an  immeasurable  height  of  personal  dig- 
nity above  the  obscure  and  ignorant  fanatic  who  had 
first  lighted  up  the  flame  which  he  now  rekindled. 
But  St.  Bernard  could  only  emulate  the  successful 
mission,  though  he  might  slight  the  memory,*  of  the 
Hermit  Peter;  the  impassioned  oratory  of  the  pro- 
found theologian  could  hot  produce  more  astonishing 
results  than  the  rude  eloquence  of  the  Solitary  of 
Amiens ;  and,  in  the  relation  of  its  effects,  the  preach- 
ing of  the  second  Crusade  forms  but  a  copy  of  that 
of  the  first. 

Louis  VII.  of  France,  by  his  firmness  in  repressing 
the  rebellious  feuds  of  his  turbulent  vassals,  had  se- 
curely established  the  royal  authority ;  and  the  tran- 
quil condition  of  his  kingdom  left  him  at  liberty  to 
gratify,  in  a  foreign  and  sacred  enterprise,  the  thir,«t 
of  glorious  adventure  natural  to  a  young  and  success- 

*  IH  one  of  his  extant  epistles,  St.  Bernard  speaks  contemptu- 
ously of  his  predecessor  the  Hermit,  as  vir  quidam,  Pctrus  nomine, 
cujus  'et  vos,  (rii  fallor^)  ssepe  mentionem  audistis,  &c.;  (a  certain  man, 
by  name  Peter,  of  whom,  if  I  mistake  not,  ye  have  often  heard  men- 
tion made ;)  and  attributes  to  his  misconduct  the  destruction  of  the 
people  in  the  first  Crusade.  Opera  Sancti  Bcrnardi,  Ep.  363.  Ed 

Mabillon,  Venet.  A.  D.  1750. 

14 


210  THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 

ful  monarch.  But  even  the  strong  desire  of  chival- 
rous achievement  was  secondary  in  the  mind  of  this 
religious  prince  to  motives  of  piety,  however  mis- 
taken ;  and  feelings  of  deeply  cherished  remorse  for 
his  involuntary  share  in  the  horrible  catastrophe  at 
Vitry,  and  of  less  reasonable  compunction  for  a  long 
disregard  of  the  papal  anathemas,  powerfully  impelled 
Louis  to  offer  that  atonement,  which  a  false  supersti- 
tion deemed  most  acceptable  to  Heaven,  by  embarking 
in  the  great  warfare  against  the  infidel  assailants  of 
the  Holy  Land.  When,  therefore,  St.  Bernard  an- 
nounced his  mission,  it  was  eagerly  promoted  by  the 
French  king ;  and,  in  the  great  assembly  of  his  nobles 
and  people  which  he  convoked  at  Vezelay,  the  same 
spectacle  was  repeated,  which  had  been  witnessed  at 
the  Council  of  Clermont  before  the  first  Crusade. 
From  the  innumerable  multitudes  which  filled  the 
plain  and  covered  the  neighbouring  heights  of  Vezelay 
to  their  summit,  cries  of  "  The  cross,  the  cross !  it  is 
the  will  of  God !"  rent  the  air  and  interrupted  the 
vehement  appeal  of  the  preacher ;  and,  before  the 
assembly  broke  up,  Louis  himself,  with  his  queen,  the 
too  famous  Eleanor  of  Aquitaine,  and  a  host  of  the 
nobility,  and  knighthood  of  his  realm,  had  been  signed 
with  the  sacred  emblem  of  their  vows.  From  France, 
St.  Bernard  with  indefatigable  zeal  proceeded  into 
Germany;  [March  31,  1146;]  and  his  course  from 
the  Rhine  to  the  Danube,  and  from  the  recesses  of  the 
Swiss  mountains  to  the  plains  of  Northern  Italy,  was 


FALL    OF    EDESSA.  211 


Queen  Eleanor  of  Aquitaine. 

everywhere  signalized  by  the  same  successful  exertions 
of  his  fervid  zeal  and  impetuous  eloquence.  At  his 
soul-stirring  exhortations,  the  great  feudatory  princes 
of  Bavaria,  Bohemia,  Carinthia,  Piedmont,  and  Styria, 
with  a  crowd  of  inferior  chieftains,  assumed  the  cross ; 
and  the  conversion  of  the  Emperor  Conrad  III.,  aftei 
some  struggle  between  the  sense  of  political  interest 
and  of  religious  duty,  completed  the  triumph  of  the 
pious  orator.* 

*  Odo  de  D'agolo,  (apud  Bouquet,  Recueil  des  Hist.  Francois,) 
vol.  xii.  91-93.  Otto  Frisingensis,  (apud  Muratori,  Script.  Rer. 
Ital.')  vol  vi.  c.  .37.  These  two  writers,  the  first  a  Frenchman,  and 
the  latter  a  German,  who  himself  accompanied  the  emperor  Conrad 
to  Palestine,  form — together  with  the  anonymous  author  of  the 


212  THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 

The  personal  motives  of  St.  Bernard  were  disinte- 
rested, pure,  and  elevated ;  his  zeal  was  equally  free 
from  all  alloy  of  gross  fanaticism,  selfish  ambition,  or 
worldly  vanity ;  and  its  mistaken  direction  was  the 
only  error  which  he  shared  with  the  most  virtuous 
and  devout  of  his  contemporaries.  But  the  intrinsic 
greatness  of  his  mind  is  not  the  less  perceptible 
through  this  fatal  delusion ;  and  in  nothing  is  his 
superiority  to  the  spirit  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived 
more  conspicuous,  than  in  the  wisdom  and  humanity 
which  tempered  his  enthusiasm.  The  first  of  these 
qualities  was  signally -displayed  in  his  refusal  to  ac- 
cept the  command  of  the  intended  expedition  to  the 
Holy  Land,  as  a  station  which  he  felt  and  confessed 
his  own  unfitness  to  fill  from  want  of  martial  expe- 
rience and  bodily  health.  His  humane  exertions  to 
avert  from  the  Jews  in  France  a  repetition  of  the  hor- 
rid persecution  which  their  fathers  had  suffered  from 
the  fanaticism  of  the  first  crusaders,  attest  his  libe- 
rality, and  were  extended  to  the  protection  of  that 
unhappy  people,  with  earnest  and  consistent  benevo- 
lence, in  Germany  and  other  countries.  He  sternly 
silenced,  by  the  exertion  of  his  delegated  authority 
from  the  pope,  the  preaching  of  a  fanatical  German 
monk,  who  had  endeavoured  to  provoke  a  general 
massacre  df  the  Jews;  and  his  injunctions  in  circular 

Gesia  Ludovici  Regis  VII.  (in  Duchesne,  vol.  iv.) — our  chief  con- 
temporary authorities  for  the  transactions  of  their  respective  country- 
men in  the  second  Crusade. 


FALL    OF     EDESSA.  213 

letters  to  the  crusaders  to  abstain  equally  from  the 
murder  and  spoliation  of  an  unoffending  people, 
breathe  the  genuine  Christian  precepts  of  mercy  and 
justice.  The  doctrines  thus  inculcated,  indeed,  were 
so  new  to  his  age,  that  fully  to  appreciate  the  virtu- 
ous and  truly  pious  efforts  of  St.  Bernard  in  his  labour 
of  charity,  they  must  be  contrasted  with  the  mon- 
strous opinion  then  prevalent  among  all  orders  of 
society,  that  to  shed  the  blood  and  despoil  the  wealth 
of  infidels  was  an  allowable  vengeance,  and  even  a 
positive  duty,  against  the  enemies  of  God.  The  prac- 
tical application  of  this  inhuman  and  impious  belief 
to  the  plunder  and  slaughter  of  a  rich,  usurious,  and 
defenceless  race,  offered  too  tempting  a  prey  to  the 
cupidity  of  the  bigoted  populace  and  the  yet  more 
malignant  instigation  of  numerous  debtors,  to  be 
wholly  averted  even  by  the  eloquent  and  powerful 
denunciations  of  the  preacher  whose  voice  had 
awakened  all  Europe  to  arms.  Notwithstanding 
the  anathemas  of  St.  Bernard,  the  Jews  were  in  many 
places  robbed  and  murdered ;  and  in  Germany  espe- 
cially they  were  saved  from  extermination  only  by 
the  imperial  protection.* 

*  Pfeffel,  Hist.  d'Allemagne,  vol.  i.  309. 


214 


THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 


SECTION  IV. 

LOUIS  VII.  AND  CONRAD  III.  IN  PALESTINE. 

HE  presence  of  Louis  V1L 
and  of  the  Emperor  Conrad 
III. — the  first  great  monarchs 
of  the  West  who  had  as- 
sumed the  cross — seemed  to 
invest  the  great  enterprise  in 
which  they  had  engaged  with 
a  dignity  superior  even  to  that  of  the  former  Cru- 
sade. The  armies  which  the  two  sovereigns  prepared 
to  lead  to  the  relief  of  Palestine  comprised  the  na- 
tional chivalry  of  France  and  Germany,  with  nume- 
rous auxiliaries  from  England*  and  Italy ;  and,  if  the 


*  The  recent  cessation  of  the  civil  wars  of  Stephen's  reign  in- 
duced many  of  the  English  nobility  to  assume  the  cross,  and  among 


LOUIS    VII.    AND     CONRAD    III.  215 

statements  of  contemporary  writers  may  be  credited, 
these  united  forces  equalled  in  number  the  prodigious 
hosts  of  the  first  holy  war.  The  emperor  and  the 
king  were  each  at  the  head  of  seventy  thousand  mailed 
cavalry;  their  heavily  armed  infantry  exceeded  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand ;  and  the  clergy,  other 
defenceless  pilgrims,  camp-followers,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, might  swell  the  aggregate  of  the  crusading  mul- 
titudes to  nearly  a  million  of  souls.*  From  Ratisbon 
and  Mayence,  their  places  of  rendezvous,  both  the 
German  and  French  armies  successively  pursued  the 
same  route  through  Hungary  and  Bulgaria  to  Con- 
stantinople, which  had  been  traversed  by  their  prede- 
cessors in  the  first  Crusade.  Manuel  Comnenus, 
grandson  of  Alexius,  was  now  on  the  Byzantine 
throne ;  but  the  timid  and  treacherous  policy  of  that 
court  was  unchangeable ;  and,  in  the  apparent  friend- 
ship and  secret  hostility  with  which  the  Greek  empe- 
ror alternately  assisted  and  harassed  the  march  of  the 
crusaders,  he  faithfully  copied  the  example  of  his 
ancestor.  He  engaged  by  treaty  that  they  should 
be  received  hospitably,  and  supplied  with  provisions 
upon  equitable  terms;  yet,  in  the  bread  which  hia 

them  Roger  de  Mowbray  and  William  de  Warenne.  Ricardus  Ha- 
gulst.  p.  275,  276.  Huntingdon,  p.  394,  also  says  that  multi  de 
yente  Anglorum,  (many  Englishmen,)  accompanied  the  French  host; 
and  his  account  is  curiously  confirmed  by  the  Byzantine  chronicler 
Cinnamus,  p.  29. 

*  Will.  Tyr.  p.  902.     Cinnamus,  p.  31,  and  the  authorities  cited 
in  Du  Cange,    (ad  Cinnamum.) 


216  THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 

subjects  sold  to  them,  poisonous  ingredients  were  fre- 
quently mingled ;  base  coin  was  issued  expressly  from 
the  imperial  mint  to  defraud  the  strangers  in  the 
interchange  of  trade ;  the  sick  whom  the  crusading 
hosts  were  obliged  to  leave  behind  on  their  march 
were  often  murdered;  their  stragglers  were  cut  off; 
the  bridges  on  their  route  were  broken  down ;  their 
columns  were  galled,  with  flights  of  arrows  from  am- 
bush in  every  forest;  and  all  the  impediments  of  a 
desultory  though  unavowed  warfare  were  cowardly 
opposed  to  their  progress.  When,  therefore,  the  Ger- 
man army  thus  harassed  arrived  before  the  walls  of 
Constantinople,  Conrad,  though  he  abstained  from  hos- 
tile retaliation,  indignantly  refused  an  interview  with 
the  Greek  emperor,  and,  crossing  the  Bosphorus,  pur- 
sued his  march  through  Asia  Minor.  But  the  French 
king,  on  his  arrival  at  the  Byzantine  capital,  accepted 
the  apologies  and  entertainment  of  Manuel,  and  suf- 
fered himself  to  be  beguiled  by  the  blandishments  of 
his  perfidious  host,  until  he  was  roused  from  inaction 
by  the  appalling  intelligence  of  the  destruction  of  the 
German  army.* 

In  the  march  through  Asia  Minor,  the  Emperor 
Conrad  was  betrayed  by  his  Greek  guides  into  the 
hands  of  the  Sultan  of  Iconium,  who  had  assembled 
immense  hordes  of  Turcomans  to  oppose  his  passage. 
While  purposely  misled  into  the  most  dangerous 

*  Will.  Tyr.  p.  901-903.     Cinnamus,  p.  30-32. 


LOUIS    VII.    AND    CONRAD    III. 


217 


Conrad  III. 

mountain  passes  of'Lycaonia,  the  Germans  were  sud- 
denly attacked  on  all  sides;  and  the  heavily  armed 
cavalry  were  unable  either  to  reach  their  more 
lightly  equipped  assailants  on  the  heights,  or  to  pro- 
tect the  defenceless  crowd  of  footmen  from  the 
Turkish  arrows.  By  a  desperate  effort  Conrad  suc- 
ceeded, indeed,  with  a  portion  of  his  horse,  in  cutting 
a  retreat  through  the  Mussulman  hordes :  but  he 
was  compelled  to  abandon  the  infantry  and  unarmed 

t 

pilgrims  to  their  fate ;  and  nine-tenths  of  the  whole 
German  host  are  computed  to  have  been  destroyed  by 
the  shafts  and  cimeters  of  the  infidels,  or  to  have 
perished  of  hunger  and  thirst  in  this  calamitous  ex- 
pedition. When  Conrad,  with  the  remnant  of  his 
followers,  had  effected  his  retreat  to  Nice,  where  the 
French  king,  after  crossing  the  Bosphorus,  had  esta- 


218  THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 

Wished  his  camp,  no  doubt  was  left  of  the  fou 
treachery  of  Manuel,  who  had  not  only  delayed  the 
advance  of  Louis  by  false  reports  of  the  success  of  his 
Germajn  confederates,  but  was  also  found  to  have 
maintained  an  intelligence  with  the  Sultan  of  Iconium. 
As  the  Greek  emperor  is  charged  with  this  guilt,  not 
merely  by  the  Latin  writers,  but  on  the  contemporary 
testimony  of  one  of  his  own  subjects,*  some  praise  is 
due  to  the  magnanimous  or  prudent  forbearance  which 
induced  the  crusading  monarchs  to  sacrifice  every 
natural  impulse  of  vengeance,  to  the  fulfilment  of  the 
sacred  objects  of  their  enterprise.  Now  advancing  in 
concert  through  Asia  Minor,  but  turning  aside  from 
the  former  route  of  the  crusaders,  to  the  sea-coast  of 
Lydia,  Conrad  and  Louis  reached  Ephesus  with  their 
forces;  but  there  the  destitution  of  equipments  for  a 
longer  march,  to  which  his  Germans  had  been  re- 
duced by  their  defeat,  obliged  Conrad  to  transport 
them  by  sea  to  Palestine;  and  the  French  army 
alone  resumed  its  route  by  land.  On  the  banks  of 
the  Meander,  Louis  and  his  chivalry  encountered  and 
overthrew  the  Turkish  hosts  with  so  tremendous  a 
slaughter,  that  piles  of  Mussulman  bones  in  the  next 
age  still  whitened  the  scene  of  destruction.  But  the 
confidence  inspired  by  this  victory  served  only  to  lure 
on  the  negligent  crusader's  to  their  ruin.  In  their 
continued  march,  the  vanguard  had  already  passed 

*  Nicetas,  p.  33. 


LOUIS    VII.  AND    CONRAD    III.  219 

HI 

Hl'a 


Louis  VII.  defending  himself  against  the  Turks. 

the  mountains  between  Pisidia  and  Phrygia,  when  the 
rereward  commanded  by  Louis  in  person,  while  en- 
tangled in  the  defiles,  was  suddenly  assailed  by  innu- 
merable swarms  of  Turks,  who,  covering  the  sur- 
rounding precipices,  from  thence,  with  fragments  of 
rock,  crushed  and  hurled  whole  squadrons  of  the 
French  gens-d'armerie  into  the  yawning  gulfs  below. 
The  surprise  was  so  complete  and  dreadful,  that  the 
whole  rearguard  was  routed  and  destroyed  before 
order  could  be  restored;  and  the  king  himself,  after 
performing  prodigies  of  valour,  was  saved  only,  under 
favour  of  the  darkness,  by  climbing  a  tree,  and  with 
difficulty  escaped,  almost  unattended,  to  the  carnp  of 
the  vanguard.  After  this  disaster,  the  hope  of  pene 


220  THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 

trating  into  Syria  by  land  was  abandoned ;  the  sea- 
coast  was  again  sought;  and  the  army  reached  the 
port  of  Attalia  in  Pamphylia.  There,  after  incurring 
new  horrors  and  losses  from  famine  and  disease,  the 
king  sucee'eded  in  procuring  some  Greek  vessels  to 
transport  his  bands  of  nobles  and  knights  to  Antioch : 
but  he  was  relunctantly  compelled,  by  the  want  of 
sufficient  shipping,  to  abandon  thev  inferior  crowd  of 
infantry  and  pilgrims  on  the  shore.  After  his  de- 
parture, the  guard  which  he  had  left  for  their  pro- 
tection, proved  insufficient  to  resist  the  incessant 
attacks  of  the  Turks;  the  people  of  Attalia  not  only 
shut  the  gates  of  the  city  against  them,  but  mas- 
sacred the  defenceless  sick  and  wounded;  and  the 
whole  wretched  multitude  perished,  either  by  the 
swords  of  the  infidels,  or  the  more  unnatural  cruelty 
of  the  perfidious  Greeks.* 

When  the  German  emperor  and  the  French  king 
had  at  last  reached  the  shores  of  Palestine  by  sea, 
even  the  shattered  remnants  of  their  hosts  supplied  so 
considerable  a  reinforcement  to  the  Christian  power 
in  Palestine,  that  in  a  general  council  at  Acre,  whither 
the  two  monarchs  repaired  to  meet  the  king  of  Jeru- 
salem and  his  barons,  it  was  resolved  to  undertake 
some  enterprise  worthy  of  the  imperial  and  royal  dig« 
nity.  But  though  the  recovery  of  the  principality  of 
Edessa  had  formed  the  original  design  of  the  Crusade,, 

*  Will.  Tyr  p.  903-006.     Gesta  Ludovici,  p.  395  400    Nicetas,  n 
83-37. 


LOUIS    VII.  AND    CONRAD    VII. 


223 


that  object  was  now  either  abandoned  from  conviction 
of  the  difficulties  attending  so  distant  an  expedition; 
or  postponed  to  more  pressing  considerations  of  imme- 
diate danger  or  local  interest.  The  vicinity  of 
Damascus  rendered  the  continued  possession  of  that 
important  place  by  the  infidels  more  perilous  to  the 
safety  of  the  Latin  kingdom  than  the  loss  of  the 
remoter  city  of  Edessa;  and  the  three  sovereigns  of 


222  THE    SECOND    CRUSADE. 

Germany,  France,  and  Jerusalem,  led  their  national 
shivalry  and  the  Knights  of  St.  John  and  the  Temple, 
to  the  siege  of  that  great  stronghold  of  the  Turkish 
power  in  Syria.  But  Damascus  was  strongly  for- 
tified and  skilfully  defended;  the  valour  of  the  Chris- 
tians was  misdirected  by  ignorance,  or  paralyzed  by 
discord  and  treason;  and,  after  a  miserable  failure, 
variously  attributed  to  all  these  causes,  the  crusading 
army  withdrew  from  the  walls,  and  retreated  in 
shame  and  dishonour  to  Jerusalem.  Thence,  in  de- 
spair of  the  efficacy  of  further  exertions,  Conrad  and 
Louis,  with  an  interval  of  a  year  between  their 
several  departures,  both  returned  to  Europe  with  the 
broken  array  of  the  chivalry ;  and  the  Christian  cause 
in  Palestine  was  again  deserted,  save  by  the  scanty 
bands  but  enduring  courage  of  its  habitual  defenders.* 
Such  was  the  abortive  issue  of  the  second  Crusade. 
The  mightiest  efforts  of  the  congregated  force  of  Eu- 
rope had  been  exhausted  in  Asia  Minor;  [A.  D.  1149;] 
and  the  presence  of  the  greatest  monarchs  of  Christen- 
dom in  Palestine  had  served  only  to  expose  the  weak- 
ness of  their  vaunted  power  to  the  eyes  of  the  tri- 
umphant infidels.  The  sacrifice  of  the  myriads  of 
their  followers  had  absolutely  failed  to  achieve  a  sin- 
gle advantage  for  the  cause  in  which  two  great  armies 
had  perished ;  and,  after  the  fruitless  hopes  of  succour 
which  had  been  excited  by  their  approach,  and,  disap- 

*  Will.  Tyr.  p.  906-914.    Gesta  Ludovid,  p.  410-409.    Otto  Frig. 
«.  40-47,  &c. 


LOUIS    VII.    AND   CONRAD    III. 


223 


pointed  by  their  failure,  the  guardians  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  were  abandoned  to  sustain  the  tempest  of 
Mussulman  warfare  with  diminished  confidence  and 
increasing  danger.  Meanwhile,  from  the  distant  banks 
of  the  Euphrates,  the  gathering  power  which  had 
already  swept  away  the  Christian  bulwark  of  Edessa, 
and  was  destined  eventually  to  overwhelm  the  Latin 
kingdom  of  Palestine,  was  continually  enlarged  with 
portentous  vigour.  Before  the  death  of  Zenghi,  the 
victorious  Emir  or  Atabec  of  Aleppo,  his  dominions 
had  already  swelled  into  a  considerable  empire ;  and, 
by  its  still  further  extension  under  his  son,  the  great 
Noureddin,  who  added  the  sovereignty  of  Damascus 
to  that  of  Aleppo,  and  consolidated  the  Mussulman 
power  in  Syria  under  a  single  ruler,  the  frontiers  of 
the  Latin  states  became  completely  enveloped  by  th« 
conquests  of  this  formidable  enemy. 


224 


THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 


An  Arab  Encampment. 

CHAPTER  HI. 

&  ft  £   ®  ft  i  r  &   €  r  u  s  a  b  e. 

SECTION   I.— THE   RISE   OF  SALADIN. 


OTWITHSTANDllf'3 

the  failure  of  the  seco?  id 
Crusade,  and  the  increi  s- 
,  ing  poAver  ot  the  Turl  s, 
Baldwin  III.,  support  ,-d 
by  the  feudal  array  of  Lis 
kingdom,  and  the  knights 
of  the  military  orders, 
continued  throughout  the 
remainder  of  his  reign 
to  uphold  the  Christian 


RISE    OF     SALADIN.  .    225 

valise  in  Palestine  with  courage  and  energy.  In  order 
to  protect  the  northern  frontiers  of  the  Latin  states 
from  the  designs  of  Noureddin,  the  king  stationed 
himself  ut  Antioch ;  and,  though  unable  to  save  the 
remnant  of  the  Edessene  territory,  he  succeeded  in 
rescuing  the  Christian  garrisons  and  inhabitants  under 
a  safe  escort  from  the  impending  horrors  of  Turkish 
slavery.  Being  recalled  from  Antioch  to  repel  a  new 
invasion,  in  which  the  troops  of  Noureddin  from  Da- 
mascus had  penetrated  to  the  gates  of  Jerusalem,  he 
came  up  with  the  infidels,  who  had  already  been  com- 
pelled to  retreat  by  the  bravery  of  the  military  Or- 
ders ;  and  inflicted  on  them,  near  Jericho,  so  total  a 
defeat  that  the  whole  Turkish  host  was  either  slaugh- 
tered or  drowned  in  the  waters  of  the  Jordan.  On 
the  southern  frontiers  of  Palestine,  the  arms  of  the 
Christian  prince  were  subsequently  still  more  success- 
ful against  the  Egyptian  Mussulmans ;  and  his  reduc- 
tion of  the  important  city  of  Ascalon,  after  an  obstinate 
siege,  added  a  new  possession  and  bulwark  to  the  king- 
dom of  Jerusalem.  [A.  D.  1153.]  By  these  exploits,  and 
by  the  generous  spirit  with  which  he  devoted  his  last 
years  to  the  active  defence  of  his  people,  Baldwin  re- 
deemed the  reproach  of  some  irregularities  of  personal 
conduct  which  had  clouded  his  youth ;  without  any 
high  degree  of  ability,  his  character  was  graced  by  many 
noble  and  chivalric  qualities;*  and  he  died  respected 


*  Will.  Tyr.  p  915-954.     De  Guignes,  lib.  xiii. 
15 


226  THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 

even  by  his  infidel  enemies,  and  deeply  lamented  by 
his  own  subjects.  As  he  left  no  children,  he  was 
succeeded  by  his  brother  Almeric,  whose  equal  medi- 
ocrity of  talent  was  unrelieved  by  the  same  virtues, 
and  whose  temper  presented  an  unpleasing  contrast 
of  avarice  and  overweening  ambition.  [A.  D.  1162.] 
By  these  passions,  the  new  king,  disregarding  the 
pressure  of  nearer  and  more  imminent  danger  from 
the  power  of  Noureddin,  was  tempted  to  engage  in 
repeated  projects  for  the  distant  conquest  of  Egypt, 
which,  as  fruitlessly  exhausting  the  strength  of  the 
Christian  kingdom,  may  be  numbered  among  the 
accelerating  causes  of  its  downfall. 

Obeying  the  usual  vicissitudes  of  the  Saracer 
dynasties,  the  Fatimite  Khalifs  of  Egypt  had  for 
many  generations  sunken  into  abject  slavery  to  their 
own  vizirs;  and  at  the  period  before  us,  the  supreme 
authority  in  the  seraglio  of  Cairo  was  disputed  be- 
tween two  powerful  rivals,  Shawer  and  Dargham. 
The  latter  prevailing,  Shawer  fled  to  the  court  of 
Noureddin;  and  that  prince,  glad  of  any  occasion  for 
extending  his  influence,  openly  protected  the  fugitive. 
and  despatched  a  body  of  troops  under  Shiracouch,  the 
most  famous  of  his  Turcoman  generals,  into  Egypt,  tc 
reinstate  him  in  the  vizirship.  The  expedition  was 
successful;  Dargham  was  slain  in  battle;  but  Shawer, 
in  nominally  recovering  his  power  over  the  helpless 
Khalif  of  Egypt,  found  that  he  was  only  himself  a 
slave  to  the  lieutenant  of  Noureddin.  To  rid  himself 


RISE    OF    SALADIN.  227 

of  this  new  yoke,  the  Egyptian  vizir  had  recourse  to 
the  king  of  Jerusalem ;  arid  Almeric,  who  had  already 
engaged  in  hostilities  to  exact  a  tribute  from  Egypt, 
eagerly  received  his  overtures.  The  power  of  Nou- 
reddin  was  far  superior  to  that  of  the  Frankish 
monarch:  but  the  proximity  of  Palestine  to  Egypt 
enabled  the  Christian  forces  to  reach  Cairo  by  a  direct 
march  from  their  own  frontiers;  while  from  Damascus 
the  interposition  of  the  Latin  states  would  oblige  the 
Turkish  cavalry  to  make  a  long  circuit  over  the  burn- 
ing deserts  of  Arabia.  This  advantage  of  situation 
made  it  easy  for  the  king  of  Jerusalem,  on  the  invi- 
tation of  Shawer,  to  march  an  army  into  Egypt,  and 
to  besiege  Shiracouch  in  Pelusium,  before  Noureddin 
was  able  to  succour  his  lieutenant.  After  a  long  and 
gallant  defence,  the  Turkish  general  was  compelled  to 
capitulate:  but  Noureddin  meanwhile  had  made  a 
formidable  diversion  by  pouring  his  troops  into  the 
territory  of  Antioch;  and  Almeric,  thus  prevented 
from  reaping  the  fruits  of  his  victory,  returned  by 
rapid  marches  to  the  defence  of  the  Latin  state.  At 
his  approach,  Noureddin  made  an  artful  demonstration 
of  retiring:  but  his  retreat  was  only  the  prelude  to  a 
sudden  attack  upon  the  exulting  and  negligent  forces 
of  Almeric ;  and  the  Christians,  before  they  could  re- 
cover from  their  surprise,  were  routed  near  Artesia 
with  immense  loss.  [A.  D.  1163.]  After  this  ominous 
event,  the  severest  defeat  in  the  open  field  which  the 
Christian  forces  in  Palestine  had  sustained  since  their 


RISE    OF    SALADIN.  229 

conquest  of  Jerusalem,  Noureddin  was  at  leisure  to 
resume  his  designs  upon  Egypt;  and  the  veteran 
Shiracouch  was  ordered  to  lead  a  second  and  more 

f 

numerous  army  into  that  country.  But  Almeric, 
stimulated  by  ambition  and  avarice,  had  made  such 
vigorous  efforts  to  repair  the  disaster  of  Artesia,  that 
he  again  appeared  on  the  Egyptian  frontiers  with  a 
chosen  body  of  the  Christian  chivalry,  before  Shira- 
couch had  reached  the  banks  of  the  Nile.  The  Turk- 
ish army  was  exhausted  bj  a  calamitous  march  across 
the  desert;  the  Christian  knights  were  fresh  and 
vigorous,  and  their  valour  and  energy,  though  feebly 
supported  by  their  Egyptian  allies,  triumphed  over 
the  superior  military  skill  of  Shiracouch.  After  a 
campaign  in  which  the  ability  of  the  Turkish  general 
was  admirably  displayed,  he  was  a  second  time 
obliged  to  conclude  a  capitulation  with  Almeric  and 
the  Vizir  Shawer,  by  which  he  engaged  to  evacuate 
Egypt;  [A.  D.  1167;]  and  both  the  Christian  and 
Turkish  armies  returned  to  their  own  states.* 

The  cupidity  of  the  king  of  Jerusalem  was,  how- 
ever, after  so  successful  an  expedition,  more  than  ever 
attracted  by  the  wealth  and  defenceless  condition  of 
Egypt;  and  obtaining,  through  a  family  alliance 
which  he  had  at  tin's  epoch  concluded  with  the  Greek 
emperor,  M.anuel  Comnenus,  the  promised  aid  of  the 
Bj'zantine  navy,  he  resolved  to  attempt  the  total  sub- 

*  Will.  Tyr.  p.  955-974.     De  Guignes,  lib.  xiii. 


230  THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 

jugation  of  the  country  which  he  had  protected  from 
the  Turks.  A  pretence  for  this  aggression  was  found 
or  framed  on  the  report  of  a  secret  negotiation  be- 
tween the  Vizir  Shawer  and  Noureddin ;  and  Almeric, 
drawing  together  one  of  the  most  numerous  and  best 
appointed  armies  which  had  ever  been  assembled 
under  the  Christian  banners  in  Palestine,  suddenly 
crossed  ,the  Egyptian  frontiers,  attacked  Pelusium, 
sacked  that  city  with  horrible  cruelty,  and  from 
thence  advanced  to  the  gates  of  Cairo.  But  his  per- 
fidy and  the  ferocious  conduct  of  his  followers  roused 
the  unwarlike  Egyptians  to  desperation;  and  while 
the  people  of  Cairo  prepared  for  a  vigorous  defence, 
and  implored  the  distant  aid  of  their  ancient  Turkish 
enemies  for  their  deliverance,  the  Vizir  Shawer  baited 
the  avarice  of  the  king  of  Jerusalem  by  the  gift  of  an 
hundred  thousand  pieces  of  gold,  and  the  promise  of 
nine  times  that  amount  as  the  price  of  peace.  The 
greedy  Almeric  suffered  himself  to  be  amused  by 
these  negotiations,  until  Shiracouch  with  a  large  army 
appeared  on  the  frontiers,  and  the  crafty  vizir,  then 
throwing  off  the  mask,  joined  the  Turks  with  his 
troops,  and  recommenced  hostilities.  The  Christian 
army  was  now  unable  to  cope  with  the  united  forces 
of  the  Egyptian  and  Syrian  Moslems ;  the  Greek  em- 
peror had  failed  in,  rendering  the  promised  co-opera- 
tion of  his  navy;  and  the  king  of  Jerusalem  closed 
his  iniquitous  scheme  of  conquest  by  a  disgraceful  re- 
treat into  Palestine.  But  the  Egyptian  vizir  imme- 


RISE    OP    SALADIN. 


231 


Shiracouch. 


diately  fell  a  victim  to  his  own  tortuous  policy.  For, 
now  jealous  of  the  influence  which  the  victorious 
Turk  had  acquired  over  the  feeble  mind  of  the  Khalif, 
he  conspired  against  the  life  of  so  dangerous  a  rival; 
and  Shiracouch,  anticipating  his  treachery,  caused 
him  to  be  seized  and  put  to  death,  and  himself  to  be 
invested  with  the  dignity  of  vizir*. 


*  Will.  Tyr.  p.  974-980 


232  THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 

The  new  ruler  of  Egypt  survived  his  elevation  only 
two  months ;  and  his  death  prepared  the  rise  of  his 
nephew,  the  famous  Sallah-u-deen  or  Saladin.  This 
scourge  of  the  Christian  fortunes  in  Palestine  had 
attended  his  uncle  in  all  his  expeditions  into  Egypt ; 
and  in  the  second  of  those  campaigns  had  particularly 
distinguished  himself  by  a  skilful  and  resolute,  though 
unsuccessful,  defence  of  Alexandria.  But  the  .politi- 
cal genius  and  ambition  of  the  young  Curdish  chief- 
tain had  remained  concealed  from  the  world,  and,  per- 
haps, from  himself,  in  the  pursuit  of  licentious  plea- 
sures ;  and,  on  the  death  of  Shiracouch,  when  the 
haughty  pretensions  of  elder  leaders  to  the  vizirship 
alarmed  the  jealousy  of  the  feeble  Khalif  of  Egypt, 
the  apparent  weakness  of  'Saladiu  induced  that  sove- 
reign to  nominate  him  to  the  vacant  dignity.  If  the 
disgust  and  disaffection  of  the  disappointed  emirs  at 
first  rendered  Saladin  the  powerless  servant  of  the 
khalif,  his  skilful  use  of  the  royal  treasures  soon  pur- 
chased for  him  the  return,  and  won  the  affections  of 
his  former  rivals ;  and  the  new  vizir,  from  the  minis- 
ter, easily  became  the  master  of  the  khalif,  and  the 
real  lord  of  Egypt.  A  single  bold  measure,  favoured 
by  the  mortal  illness  of  the  Khalif  Adhed,  was  now 
sufficient  to  complete  the  Turkish  conquest  of  that 
country.  One  of  the  followers  of  Saladin,  taking  pos- 
session of  the  principal  pulpit  of  Cairo,  substituted 
the  name  of  the  Khalif  of  Bagdad  for  that  of  the 
Egyptian  sovereign  in  the  public  prayers,  as  the  true 


RISE    OF    SALADIN.  235 

commander  of  the  faithful;  the  people,  from  indiffer- 
ence or  fear,  silently  acquiesced  in  the  change ;  an(? 
the  green  emblems  of  the  sect  of  AH  were  everywhere 
displaced  by  the  black  ensigns  of  the  Abassidan  tenets. 
The  natural  death  of  Adhed,  who  expired  in  ignorance 
of  the  event,  in  a  few  days  completed  this  great  politi- 
cal and  religious  revolution,  by  which  the  Fatimite 
dynasty  of  Egypt  was  extinguished,  and  that  country, 
after  a  schism  of  two  centuries,  was  restored  to  the 
orthodox  communion  of  Islamism.  The  Abassidan 
Khalif  of  Bagdad,  whose  dignity  as  the  spiritual  chief 
of  that  faith  was  still  revered,  and  whose  nominal 
functions  of  temporal  sovereignty  were  dictated  by  his 
Turkish  masters,  was  made  to  sanctify  the  usurpation 
of  Saladin,  as  the  vizir  of  the  Sultan  of  Damascus  in 
Egypt ;  and,  as  long  as  Noureddin  lived,  the  youthful 
conqueror  was  overawed  by  his  power,  and,  though 
not  without  some  symptoms  of  impatience,  affected  a 
duteous  submission  to  his  will.  But,  when  the  death 
of  the  sultan*  released  him  from  the  necessity  of  fur- 

*  The  character  of  Noureddin  is  among  the  brightest  in  Moham- 
medan history ;  for  political  ability  and  valour  were  the  least  of  his 
great  qualities.  A  Mussulman  writer  declares  that  the  catalogue 
af  his  virtues  would  fill  a  volume;  and  among  these,  his  justice,  cle- 
mency, and  piety  extorted  a  still  stronger  testimony  even  from  hia 
Christian  foes,  who  had  sufficient  reason  to  fear  and  detest  so  powerful 
Rnd  deadly  an  enemy.  Thus  William  of  Tyre,  after  numbering  him 
among  the  bitterest  persecutors  of  the  Christian  name  and  faith,  adds, 
princeps  tumen  Justus,  vafer,  providus,  et  semndum  cjentis  svse  tra.' 
ditiones  rcligiosus.  (Nevertheless  he  was  a  just,  crafty,  and  far-see- 
ing prince,  and  religious  according  to  the  traditions  of  his  race.)  A 


234  THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 

ther  dissimulation,  Saladin  threw  off.  the  mask ;  gra- 
dually extended  his  influence  and  dominion  over  Syria 
and  parts  of  Arabia  and  Armenia ;  and  deposing  the 
young  and  helpless  sons  of  Noureddin,  finally  united 
the  Mussulman  states  from  the  Nile  to  the  Tigris 
under  his  single  empire.*  [A.  D.  1173.] 

By  every  motive  of  religion  and  policy,  the  new 
and  puissant  lord  of  Syria  and  Egypt  was  urged  to 
Attempt  the  expulsion  of  the  detested  enemies  of  his 
faith  from  the  intervening  territory  of  Palestine ;  but 
he  was  long  obliged  to  suspend  his  ultimate  designs 
against  the  Christians,  by  the  more  immediate  neces- 
sity of  consolidating  his  dominion  over  his  Mussulman 
opponents.  Meanwhile,  the  Latin  kingdom,  through 
its  intestine  disorders,  was  fast  falling  into  a  state  of 
weakness,  which  promised  to  deliver  it  an  easy  prey 
to  so  vigorous  an  assailant.  On  the  death  of  Almeric, 
which  shortly  followed  that  of  Noureddin,  the  crown 


trait  of  the  frugal  and  rigid  integrity  with  which  he  abstained  from 
applying  the  public  treasures  to  his  domestic  uses,  has  often  been 
repeated  from  the  pages  of  D'Herbelot.  To  some  expensive  request 
from  the  best  beloved  of  his  wives,  this  absolute  lord  of  the  gorgeoua 
East  would  only  reply,  "  Alas !  I  fear  God,  and  am  no  more  than 
the  treasurer  of  his  people.  Their  wealth  I  cannot  appropriate ;  but 
three  shops  in  the  city  of  Hems  are  yet  my  own,  and  those  you  may 
take,  for  those  alone  can  I  give."  BtLliotlibque,  Orientale,  Art. 
Noureddin. 

*  Will.  Tyr.  p.  980-995.  Bib.  Orient.  Art.  Salaheddin.  Also 
Bohadin,  Vita  Saladini,  (Schultens,)  p.  1-10.  Abulfeda,  (in  Ex- 
cerpt Schultens,)  p.  1-13.  De  Guignes,  lib.  xiii.  (vol.  ii.  p.  201— 
211) 


RISE    OF    SALADIN.  235 

of  Jerusalem  devolved  on  his  son,  Baldwin  IV.;  but 
this  prince  was  afflicted  with  leprosy,  and  felt  himself 
so  unequal  to  the  toils  of  government,  that  he  com- 
mitted the  regency  of  the  kingdom  to  his  sister 
Sybilla  and  her  second  husband  Guy  de  Lusignan. 
[A.  D.  1173,]  a  French  knight,*  to  whom  she  had 
given  her  hand  after  the  death  of  her  first  lord,  a 
Count  of  Montferrat.  But  Lusignan  was  destitute 
both  of  talent  and  courage ;  his  despicable  character 
and  unmerited  elevation  provoked  the  scorn  and  in- 
sulted the  pride  of  the  barons  of  Palestine ;  their  dis- 
affection was  fomented  by  the  intrigues  of  Raymond 
II.,  Count  of  Tripoli,  a  man  himself  capable  of  every 
perfidy;  and  the  whole  kingdom  was  distracted  by 
the  selfish  conflict  of  factions.  To  terminate  their 
struggle,  the  royal  leper  was  at  length  compelled  to 
make  a  new  settlement  of  his  realm,  by  which,  abdi- 
cating the  crown  in  favour  of  his  infant  nephew,  Bald- 
win V.,  the  son  of  Sybilla  by  her  first  husband,  he 
sommitted  the  person  of  his  young  successor  to  the 


*  Lusignan  was  a  native,  or  at  least  a  subject,  o'f  the  French  do- 
mains of  Henry  II.  of  England,  who  banished  him  for  the  treacherous 
murder  of  the  Earl  of  Salisbury,  on  which  he  assumed  the  cross,  the 
usual  resource  of  malefactors,  and  came  to  seek  his  fortune  in  Pales- 
tine. So  contemptible  was  the  estimation  in  which  he  was  held  even 
by  his  own  kindred,  that  when  his  brother  heard  of  his  subsequent 
elevation  to  the  throne  of  Jerusalem,  he  ironically  exclaimed, 
"Surely,  sin^e  the  barons  of  Palestine  have  made  him  a  king,  they 
would  have  made  me  a  god  if  they  had  known  me."  Hoveden, 
p.  514. 


236 


THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 


Saladin. 


protection  of  his  relative,  Joscelyn  de  Courtenay,  titu- 
lar Count  of  Edessa,*  the  custody  of  the  fortresses  of 
Palestine  to  the  two  military  orders,  and  the  general 
regency  of  the  kingdom  to  the  treacherous  Count  of 
Tripoli.  Baldwin  IV.  survived  this  disposition  only 
three  years  ;  his  own  decease  was  quickly  followed  by 
the  suspicious  death  of  his  nephew  ;  and  Sybilla,  sup- 
ported by  the  patriarch  and  the  grand-master  of  the 
Templars,  who  hated  Raymond  of  Tripoli,  obtained 

*  This  Joscelyn  de  Courtenay  was  the  grandson  of  the  hero,  and 
the  last  of  the  three  counts  of  Edessa,  who  bore  the  same  name 
After  the  loss  of  the  Edessene  territory,  and  the  marringe  of  his 
sister  with  Almeric,  the  royal  favour  had  invested  him  with  exten- 
sive fiefs  in  the  kingdom  of  Palestine;  but,  leaving  no  son,  the  male 
line  of  the  Asiatic  branch  of  the  Courteuays  became  extinct  on  hia 
death.  Lignagcs  d'  Outremer,  c.  xvi. 


RISE    OF    SALADIN. 


237 


the  joint  coronation  of  her  worthless  husband  and 
herself  as  king  and  queen  of  Jerusalem.  The  proud 
and  contemptuous  refusal  of  many  of  the  barons  to 
acknowledge  Lusignan  for  their  sovereign  produced  a 
civil  war,  in  which  the  Count  of  Tripoli,  under  pre- 
tence of  supporting  the  rival  claims  of  Isabella,  sister 
of  Sybilla,  to  a  share  in  the  succession,  allied  himself 
with  Saladin ;  and  these  disorders  were  scarcely  ap- 
peased by  the  address  of  Sybilla  and  the  submission 
of  most  of  the  insurgent  nobles,  when  the  fatal  tem- 
pest of  Mussulman  war  burst  upon  the  disunited  and 
devoted  state.* 


*  Will.  Tyr.  p.  995,  ad  Jin.  Plagon,  (continuator  of  William  of 
Tyre,  in  Martenne,  Vet  Scriptorum  Coll.  vol.  v.,)  p.  583-590. 
Bernardus  Thesaurarius,  (apud  Muratori  Scrip.  Rer.  Ital.  vol.  vii.,) 
c.  140-147. 


Alexandria. 


238 


THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 


SECTION  n. 

BATTLE   OF   TIBERIAS   AND   FALL   OF  JERUSALEM. 


S  long  as  Saladin  was  occupied 
in  establishing  his  authority 
over  Egypt  and  Syria,  the  peace 
of  the  Latin  kingdom  had  not 
been  much  disturbed  by  the 
incursions  of  the  infidels ;  and 
some  indecisive  hostilities  had 
been  terminated  bv  a  truce. 


BATTLE    OF    TIBERIAS.  239 

Bui  just  at  the  crisis  when  the  Turkish  conqueror  was 
prepared  to  attempt  the  work  of  destruction  which  he 
had  probably  long  meditated,  the  Christians  themselves 
were  the  first  to  disturb  the  hollow  pacification,  which 
might  alone  have  deferred  the  hour  of  .their  ruin ;  and 
a  just  occasion  of  war  Was  afforded  by  the  aggressions 
of  a  predatory  baron,  Reginald  de  Chatillon,*  [A.  D. 
1186,]  who  surprised  a  frontier  castle  belonging  to  the 
Mussulmans  on  the  borders  of  the  Arabian  desert, 
intercepted  and  plundered  their  caravans  between 
Egypt  and  Mecca,  and  insolently  defied  the  vengeance 
of  the  sultan.  Saladin  demanded  redress  of  the 
King  of  Jerusalem  for  these  outrageous  violations  of 
the  existing  peace ;  but  the  government  of  Lusignan 
was  either  too  feeble  or  too  corrupt  to  punish  the  law- 
less marauder;  and,  on  a  refusal  of  justice,  Saladin 
invaded  Palestine  at  the  head  of  eighty  thousand 
Turcoman  horse  and  foot.  The  siege  of  the  castle  of 


*'The  history  of  this  man  constitutes  in  itself  a  romance ;  and  its 
details  would  be  considered  incredible  if  narrated  by  any  modern 
writer  of  fiction.  He  was  of  obscure  birth,  and  a  native  of  Chatil- 
lon-sur-Indre,  and,  following  Louis  the  Young  into  Asia,  was  at- 
tached to  the  troop  of  Raymond  of  Poictiers,  Prince  of  Antioch. 
Ou  the  death  of  Raymond,  he  was  selected  by  his  widow,  Constance, 
as  her  husband,  and  thus  became  Prince  of  Antioch.  This  choice  filled 
the  Western  barons  with  disgust,  and,  as  his  after  conduct  showed,  did 
no  credit  to  the  discrimination  'of  the  lady.  On  the  death  of  Con- 
stance, he  married  the  widow  of  Humphrey  of  Touron,  Lord  of  Ca- 
rac;  and,  possessing  no  quality  of  a  knight  but  personal  courage,  he 
became  in  that  capacity  something  like  a  licensed  bandit.  His  fate 
is  told  above.  See  Michaud.  i.  403 


240 


THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 


Mecca. 

Tiberias  was  the  first  signal  operation  of  the  Mussul- 
man host ;  and,  for  the  relief  of  so  important  a  fort- 
ress, the  whole  strength  of  the  Christian  states  was 
hastily  collected.  But,  including  the  array  of  the 
military  orders,  the  King  of  Jerusalem  could  now  as- 
semble under  his  standard  no  more  than  twelve  hun- 
dred knights  and  twenty  thousand  foot ;  and  the  dis- 
proportion of  his  numerical  force  was  aggravated  by 
his  own  incapacity  and  cowardice,  as  well  as  by  the 
discord  and  treason*  which  prevailed  in  his  camp. 

*  By  some  of  the  Latin  writers,  the  destruction  of  the  Christian 
army  is  ascribed  to  the  treason  of  the  Count  of  Tripoli,  the  enemy 
both  of  Lusignan  and  of  the  Grand-Master  of  the  Temple.  Mr. 
Mills  (Hist,  of  the  Crusades,  vol.  i.  note  L)  considers  the  previous 


BATTLE    OF    TIBERIAS.  241 

On  the  plain  of  Tiberias  the  hostile  armies  drew  out 
for  a  conflict,  of  which  the  event  was  to  decide  the  fate 
of  the  Christian  kingdom.  Few  intelligible  particulars 
are  related  of  the  sanguinary  battle  which  followed ; 
[A,  D.  1187;]  but  those  few  attest  the  superior  skill  of 
Saladin,  who,  in  the  first  day's  encounter,  drove  his 
opponents  into  a  situation  destitute  of  water;  by  set- 
ting fire  during  the  night  to  some  neighbouring  woods, 
increased  their  intolerable  sufferings  from  the  drought 
and  heat  of  a  Syrian  summer's  night;  and  on  the 
following  morning  overwhelmed  and  massacred  their 
exhausted  and  fainting  host.  Not  only  was  the 
slaughter  of  the  cavaliers  and  soldiery  exterminating, 
but  all  the  principal  leaders  of  the  Christian  host  were 
the  victims  or  prizes  of  this  fatal  field :  the  grand- 
master of  the  Hospitallers  was  mortally  wounded  and 
died  in  his  flight ;  and  the  chief  of  the  rival  order 
of  the  Temple,  together  with  the  Marquis  of  Mont- 
ferrat,  Reginald  of  Chatillon,  the  worthless  Lusignan 
himself,  and  many  of  his  nobles  and  knights,  became 
the  captives  of  Saladin.  The  scene  which  ensued  is 
too  characteristic  of  manners  to  be  omitted  in  this 


favourable  mention  of  the  Count  by  William  of  Tyre,  and  the  silence 
of  Ralph  Coggeshal,  whose  chronicle  is  contained  in  the  fifth  volume 
of  Martenne,  and  who  was  in  Palestine  at  the  time  of  the  battle  of 
Tiberias,  as  a  satisfactory  refutation  of  the  charge.  But  the  earlier 
alliance  of  the  Count  of  Tripoli  with  Saladin  (Bernardus  Thesaur. 
c.  140)  is  undisputed;  and  his  sacrifice  of  the  Christian  cause  to 
party  or  personal  hatred  on  that  occasion,  is  surely  sufficient  to  war- 
rant the  worst  inference  from  his  subsequent  conduct. 

16 


242  TIIE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 

place.  When  the  trembling  Lusignan,  and  Chatillon, 
the  guilty  provoker  of  the  war,  were  conducted  to  the 
lent  of  the  conqueror,  Saladin  generously  reassured 
the  craven  king  of  his  safety  by  the  proffer  of  a  cup 
of  iced  water,  the  Eastern  pledge  of  hospitality.  Lu- 
signan  wished  to  pass  the  cup  to  Chatillon;  but  the 
sultan  sternly  declared  that  the  impious  marauder, 
who  had  so  often  insulted  the  prophet  of  Islam,  must 
now  either  acknowledge  his  law,  or  die  the  death 
which  his  crimes  had  merited.  With  more  virtue 
than  his  life  had  promised,  Chatillon  spurned  the  con- 
dition of  apostasy ;  and  a  blow  from  the  cimeter  of 
the  ferocious  sultan  himself,  was  the  immediate  signal 
for  his  murder.  With  less  excusable  cruelty,  while 
he  spared  his  other  noble  prisoners,  Saladin,  in  his  fa- 
natical hatred  of  the  religious  orders,  or  his  dread  of 
their  prowess,  offered  the  same  alternative  of  apostasy 
or  death  to  the  knights  of  St.  John  and  of  the  Temple 
who  had  fallen  into  his  hands.  To  a  man,  these  de- 
voted champions  of  the  cross,  two  hundred  and  thirty 
in  number,  proved  the  sincerity  of  their  faith ;  and 
the  victory  of  the  Moslems  was  stained  by  the  cold- 
blooded murder  of  the  whole  body.* 

The   disastrous   effects   of  the   battle   of  Tiberias 
were  immediately  felt  throughout  the  Latin  kingdom : 

*  Bernardus  Thesaur.  c.  147-151.  Contin.  Will.  Tyr.  p.  590-600. 
Jacobus  a  Vitriaco,  Hist.  Hierosol.  p.  1117,  1118,  (in  Gestis  Dei  per 
Francos.}  Hoveden,  p.  636-637.  D'Herbelot,  Art.  Salaheddin, 
(vol.  iii.  p.  176,  177,  &c.)  Bohadin,  p.  40-68.  Abulfeda,  p.  32. 


CAPTURE    OF     JERUSALEM.  243 

foi  ill  the  principal  fortresses  had  been  drained  of 
their  garrisons  to  swell  the  ranks  of  the  army;  and 
Tiberias  itself,  Coesarea,  Acre,  Jaffa,  and  Beritug, 
rapidly  fell  before  the  arms  of  the  conqueror.  Tyre 
was  alone  preserved  through  the  heroic  efforts  to 
which  the  citizens  were  inspired  by  the  firmness  of  a 
young  cavalier,  son  to  the  captive  Marquis  of  Mont- 
ferrat.  But  Saladin  would  not  suffer  any  secondary 
object  to  arrest  his  great  design  upon  the  Christian 
capital ;  and  turning  aside  from  the  walls  of  Tyre,  he 
marched  to  the  siege  of  the  Holy  City.  Jerusalem 
was  already  crowded  with  fugitives  from  every 
quarter  of  Palestine;  but  the  number  of  warriors 
within  its  gates  was  small,  and  their  commander  was 
a  timid  woman.  Queen  Sybilla,  herself  distracted 
w;th  sorrow  and  apprehension,  was  more  solicitious 
for  her  own  safety  and  that  of  her  captive  consort 
than  for  the  public  defence;  and  dismay  and  discord 
reigned  within  the  place.  The  first  summons  of 
Saladin  for  its  surrender  was,  indeed,  rejected;  but 
when  the  siege  was  formed,  the  resistance  was 
feeble  or  ineffectual;  and  in  fourteen  days,  the 
Turks,  despite  of  the  sallies  and  efforts  of  the  gar- 
rison, had  advanced  their  works  and  engines  to  the 
root  of  the  rampart,  and  undermined  the  walls.  A 
desire  to  capitulate  was  then  expressed ;  but  Saladin, 
in  his  fury  at  the  refusal  to  accept  his  proffered 
terms,  had  sworn  to  execute  a  dreadful  vengeance 
upon  the  Christians  for  the  Moslem  blood  which  their 


244  THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 

ancestors  had  shed  at  the  capture  of  the  city  in  the 
first  Crusade.  He  now,  therefore,  received  the  pro- 
posal of  a  capitulation  with  bitter  contempt ;  and  he 
only  listened  to  the  suggestions  of  mercy,  when  his 
burst  of  passion  was  spent,  and  the  suppliant  Chris- 
tians left  him  to  dictate  the  terms  of  surrender.  He 
then  consented  to  spare  the  lives  of  the  inhabitants, 
and  promised  a  safe-conduct  for  the  queen,  her  nobles, 
and  soldiery,  to  Tyre,  but  declared  that  the  remaining 
population  of  Jerusalem  should  become  slaves,  unless 
they  were  ransomed  at  the  rate  of  ten  crowns  of  gold 
for  each  man,  half  that  sum  for  each  woman,  and  a 
single  piece  for  every  child. 

As  soon  as  these  terms  had  been  accepted  by  the 
submission  of  the  vanquished,  Saladin  exhibited  traits 
of  a  generous  humanity  which  might  have  been  little 
anticipated  from  the  cruelty  with  which  he  had  re- 
cently stained  the  victory  of  Tiberias;  and  his  con- 
duct at  Jerusalem  well  merits  the  eulogy  of  an 
enemy,  that  he  was  in  nothing  but  in  name  a  bar- 
barian. He  not  only  performed  his  promises  with  a 
religious  fidelity,  but  exceeded  their  fulfilment  by  a 
full  measure  of  benevolence.  When  the  weeping 
female  train  of  the  queen  issued  from  the  gates  of  Je- 
rusalem, his  spirit  melted  even  unto  tears  at  the  spec- 
tacle of  their  misery :  he  advanced  to  meet  the 
mourners ;  attempted  to  console  the  princess  with  the 
courteous  sympathy  of  a  warrior  of  chivalry ;  released 
the  husbands  and  children  of  all  her  train  without 


CAPTURE    OF    JERUSALEM.  245 

ransom;  and  even  dismissed  them  laden  with  pre- 
sents. Nor  did  his  generosity  end  here :  for  he  ac- 
cepted a  price  very  much  beneath  the  stipulated  sum 
for  the  freedom  of  the  Christian  poor ;  and  even  libe- 
rated so  many  of  his  other  captives  gratuitously,  that 
the  total  number  who  remained  in  bondage  did  not 
much  exceed  ten  thousand,  out  of  a  .population  which 
is  said  to  have  amounted  to  one  hundred  thousand. 
These  better  feelings  of  his  nature  achieved  a  more 
difficult  triumph  over  even  the  fanaticism  which  was 
usually  his  master  passion :  for  learning  the  humane 
attentions  which  the  knights  of  the  Hospital  bestowed 
upon  the  sick,  he  allowed  several  brethren  of  an 
order  which  he  detested  and  found  ever  in  arms 
against  him,  to  remain  in  the  city  a  sufficient  time  for 
the  .accomplishment  of  their  pious  and  charitable 
offices.* 

When  the  queen  and  her  train  had  been  safely  dis- 
missed, the  magnanimous  victor  made  his  entry  into 
Jerusalem  in  triumphant  and  splendid  procession. 
The  great  Mosque  of  Omar,  on  the  site  of  Solomon's 
Temple,  which  had  been  converted  into  a  Christian 
church,  was  immediately  consecrated  anew  to  the 
worship  oT  Islam,  after  its  pavement  and  walls  had 
been  washed  with  Damascene  rose-water;  the  golden 


*  Bernadus,  c.  151-167.  Co'nt.Will.  Tyr.  p.  601-613.  Hoveden, 
p.  637-645.  D'Herbelot,  uli  suprd.  Bohadin,  p.  68-75.  Abulfeda, 
p.  39-43 


246  THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 

cross  which  surmounted  the  dome  of  the  Church  of 
the  Sepulchre  was  taken  down,  and  for  two  days 
dragged  through  the  streets;  and  after  a  possession 
by  the  Christians  of  eighty-eight  years,  Jerusalem  was 
again  defiled  by  the  religion  and  empire  of  the 
votaries  of  Mohammed.  Nazareth,  Bethlehem,  Asca- 
lon,  Sidon,  quickly  followed  the  fate  of  the  capital: 
the  principality  of  Antioch  was  only  spared  on  the 
ignominious  condition  of  tribute  to  the  Sultan;  and 
of  all  the  possessions  of  the  Christians  in  Palestine, 
the  seaport  of  Tyre  was  almost  the  only  place  of  im- 
portance which  was  saved  from  the  wreck  of  their 
fortunes.  But  to  that  city  all  the  Christian  garrisons  * 
which  capitulated  had  been  permitted  to  retire :  the 
whole  remaining  strength  of  the  Latin  chivalry  of 
Palestine  was  contained  within  its  walls:  and  when 
the  Turkish  army  a  second  time  appeared  before  the 
place,  it  was  again  so  bravely  defended  under  the 
guidance  of  Conrad  of  Montferrat,  that  the  conqueror 
of  Jerusalem  was  compelled  to  retire  from  a  fruitless 
siege.  The  grateful  people  resolved  to  bestow  the 
sovereignty  of  their  city  upon  their  brave  leader ;  and 
when  Guy  of  Lusignan,  having  obtained  liis  libe- 
ration, attempted  to  enter  the  place,  they  refused  to 
admit  him  within  the  walls,  or  to  acknowledge 
further  allegiance  to  the  man  on  whose  incapacity 
and  cowardice  they  laid  the  ruin  of  the  Christian 
cause.  Lusignan,  indeed,  had  only  obtained  his  re- 
lease by  a  solemn  renunciation  of  his  crown  to 


CAPTURE    OF    JERUSALEM. 


24' 


Saladin ;  'and  the  sultan,  satisfied  with  this  vain  con- 
firmation to  the  title  of  conquest,  had  returned  to 
enjoy  his  glory  at  Damascus;  when  he  was  roused 
from  a  brief  season  of  repose  by  the  alarming  report 
that  the  nations  of  Europe,  burning  with  ardour  to 
avenge  the  shame  of  the  Christian  defeat,  and  the 
loss  of  the  Sepulchre  of  Christ,  were  again  about  to 
precipitate  themselves  upon  the  shores  of  Palestine.* 

*  Bernardus,  c.  167-177.    Coggeshal,  p.  811,  812.    Hist.  RierosoL 
(in  Gestis  Dei,  &o.)  p.  1150-1169 


248 


THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 


SECTION 


THE  GERMANS  UNDERTAKE  THE  CRUSADE. 

HE  news  of  the  fall  of  Jeru- 
salem had  filled  all  Western 
Christendom  with  horror  and 
grief.  By  the  superstitious 
piety  of  the  age,  the  apathetic 
indifference  which  had  per- 
mitted the  hallowed  scenes  of 
human  redemption  again  to  be 
profaned  with  the  triumph  of 
the  enemies  of  God,  was  deeply 
felt  as  an  offence,  which  merited 
and  would  provoke  the  wrathful  judgments  of  Heaven. 


GERMANS    UNDERTAKE    THE    CRUSADE.     249 

But  after  the  first  shock  of  the  intelligence,  the  gene- 
ral consternation  and  despair  were  at  once  succeeded 
by  a  burst  of  enthusiasm,  equally  congenial  to  the 
fanatical  and  martial  state  of  society.  All  the  prin- 
cipal sovereigns  of  Europe,* — except  those  of  Spain, 
who  found  sufficient  exercise  for  their  zeal  against  the 
Mussulman  power  in  that  peninsula — immediately 
vowed  to  lead  their  national  forces  to  the  recovery  of 
Jerusalem:  but  even  their  earnest  preparations  were 
too  tardy  for  the  popular  impatience;  and  myriads  of 
their  subjects,  thronging  from  every  country  to  the 
ports  of  the  Mediterranean,  took  shipping  at  their 
private  charge,  and  hastened  to  the  shores  of  Pales- 
tine. The  chief  means  of  transport,  were,  as  usual, 
supplied  by  the  maritime  republics  of  Italy;  but 
numerous  bands  of  pilgrims,  embarking  from  the  ports 

*  Henry  II.  of  England  and  Philippe-Auguste  of  France  met  and 
received  the  Cross  together  near  Gisors ;  and  the  English  king  ap- 
pears to  have  been  earnest  in  his  intention  of  undertaking  the 
Crusade,  until  prevented  by  the  second  rebellion  of  his  sons.  At  a 
great  council  which  he  assembled  at  Gidington,  in  Northamptonshire, 
it  was  agreed  that  a  tenth  of  all  rents  and  movables  should  be  levied 
from  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  realm  for  the  service  of  the  expe- 
dition; and  by  this  means  the  king  obtained  seventy  thousand 
pounds  from  his  Christian  subjects;  while  he  extorted  the  enormous 
Bum,  for  those  days,  of  sixty  thousand  more  from  the  Jews  in  his 
dominions,  at  the  rate  of  a  fourth  of  all  their  possessions.  Gervase, 
p.  1529.  Hoveden,  p.  644.  This  tax  of  one-tenth,  under  the  name 
of  the  Saladin  tithe,  was  imposed  by  general  consent  throughout 
Europe;  and  though  originally  proposed  to  last  only  for  one  year, 
was  perpetuated,  by  the  cupidity  of  the  Papal  See,  into  a  claim  upon 
the  tenth  of  all  ecclesiastical  benefices. 


250  THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 

of  the  Baltic,  the  North  Seas,  and  the  British  Chan- 
nel, from  thence  accomplished  the  whole  maritime 
passage  to  the  Asiatic  coast.* 

By  the  arrival  at  Tyre,  in  quick  succession,  of  all 
these  crusaders,  led  by  many  noblemen  and  pielates 
of  distinction,  the  imbecile  king  of  Jerusalem  soon 
found  himself  at  the  head  of  a  numerous  army;  and 
when  he  was  encouraged  or  impelled  by  the  renovated 
strength  and  ardent  zeal  of  his  followers  to  advance 
from  Tyre  and  lay  siege  to  Acre,  the  numbers  of  the 
Christian  host  before  the  walls  of  that  important  city 
rapidly  swelled  to  one  hundred  thousand  men. 
[A.  D.  1189.].  The  danger  of  a  fortress  which,  by  it» 
position  between  the  sea  and  the  great  central  valley 
of  Palestine,  may  be  regarded  as  the  maritime  key  of 
the  whole  country,  roused  Saladin  from  his  inaction ; 
and  while  the  strength  of  the  fortifications  and  the 
valour  of  a  numerous  Mussulman  garrison,  defied  all 
the  efforts  of  the  crusaders,  the  Sultan  himself,  arriv- 
ing in  the  adjacent  plain  at  the  head  of  a  mighty 
host,  enveloped  their  beleaguers,  and  harassed  them 
with  perpetual  though  desultory  assaults.  The  Chris- 
tians, in  their  turn,  were  reduced  to  the  necessity  of 
standing  on  the  defensive;  their  camp  was  diligently 
fortified;  and  such  was  the  strength  and  complete- 
ness of  the  works  with  which  they  surrounded  it,  that 


*  Bernardus  Thesaur.  c.  177,  178.     Benedictus  Abbas  Petrober- 
gensis,  p.  495, 496.     Hoveden,  p.  636-640.    Hist.  Bierosol.  p.  1170. 


GERMANS  UNDERTAKE  THE  CRUSADE.  251 

in  the  hyperbolical  language  of  the  East,  the  Mussul- 
mans declared  not  even  a  bird  could  penetrate  the 
lines.  By  sea  the  contest  was  maintained  with  equal 
obstinacy ;  for  the  naval  forces  of  the  combatants 
were  so  nicely  balanced,  that,  by  each  successive  rein- 
forcement, either  party  was  enabled  to  relieve  the  gar- 
rison of  Acre,  or  to  refresh  the  wants  of  the  besiegers. 
The  latter,  indeed,  suffered  so  dreadfully  from  famine, 
disease,  and  the  incessant  vicissitudes  of  combat,  that 
above  three  hundred  thousand  crusaders  are  com- 
puted to  have  perished  before  the  walls  and  in  the 
plain  of  Acre ;  and  the  losses  of  the  Mussulmans  from 
the  same  causes  were  probably  inferior  only  in  de- 
gree. But,  on  both  sides,  this  frightful  consumption 
of  human  life  was  continually  fed  by  new  arrivals; 
and  during  nearly  two  years  the  strength  of  Christen- 
dom and  Islam  was  concentrated  and  exhausted  in  an 
indecisive  conflict  before  the  single  city  of  Acre.* 

Meanwhile,  the  great  monarchs  of  the  West  were 
gathering  their  national  powers  for  the  third  Crusade. 
Foremost  in  preparation,  as  in  dignity  among  them, 
was  the  Emperor  Frederic  Barbarossa,  in  whom  age 
had  no  power  either  to  quench  the  thirst  of  glory  or 
to  chill  the  fire  of  religious  enthusiasm.  But  the  chival- 
rous devotion  of  Frederic  was  regulated  by  those  pru- 
dential qualities  of  a  great  commander,  which  had  been 


*  Bernardus   Thesaur,    c.   179.     Hist.    Hierosol.  p.   1170-1172. 
Bohadin,  (in  vita  Sdladin),  p.  180.     Vinesauf,  nli  infra,  p.  4?7 


252 


THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 


Frederic  Barbarossa. 


matured  in  forty  years  of  warfare;  and  while  he 
boldly  resolved  to  take  the  same  route  through  the 
East  of  Europe  and  Asia  Minor,  which  had  been 
found  so  disastrous  to  former  hosts  of  crusaders,  his 
provident  and  skilful  arrangements  showed  how  atten- 
tively  he  had  studied  the  tremendous  lessons  of  theii 


GERMANS  UNDERTAKE  THE  CRUSADE.  253 

failure.  No  individual  was  permitted  to  join  in  the 
sacred  enterprise  who  was  unable  to  furnish  the  means 
of  his  own  support  for  a  whole  year ;  and  the  march 
from  the  confines  of  Germany  to  the  shores  of  the 
Hellespont  was  conducted  with  the  strictest  regularity 
and  discipline.  The  numbers  and  composition  of  the 
host  were  worthy  of  the  imperial  name  and  power. 
Besides  his  own  son,  the  Duke  of  Swabia,  Frederic 
was  attended  by  the  dukes  of  Austria  and  Moravia, 
by  above  sixty  other  princes  and  great  lords  of  the 
empire,  and  by  fifteen  thousand  knights,  the  flower  of 
the  Teutonic  chivalry.  Their  mounted  attendants 
swelled  the  total  array  of  cavalry  to  sixty  thousand; 
and  the  infantry,  exclusive  of  unarmed  pilgrims,  num- 
bered one  hundred  thousand  men.  Throughout  their 
passage  over  the  Greek  dominions,  the  German  host 
encountered  a  repetition  of  precisely  the  same  course 
of  treacherous  hostility,  under  the  hollow  semblance 
of  amity,  which  the  Byzantine  court  and  people  had 
pursued  in  the  previous  Crusades ;  but  the  vengeance 
of  his  troops  was  generally  restrained  by  the  mag- 
nanimous or  prudent  forbearance  of  Frederic ;  and 
though  he  resented  the  perfidy  of  the  reigning  Empe- 
ror of  the  East,  Isaac  Angelus,  by  refusing  to  visit 
Constantinople  as  a  guest,  he  peaceably  transported 
his  formidable  host  across  the  Hellespont.  The  sut> 
sequent  passage  through  Asia  Minor  was  a  yet  severer 
trial  of  Frederic's  patience  and  ability ;  but  his  genius 
surmounted  every  obstacle  of  climate  and  warfare; 


254  THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 

and  the  march  of  the  imperial  army  was  effected  with 
far  superior  order,  success,  and  reputation,  to  that  of 
any  preceding  host  of  crusaders.  The  sufferings  of  n 
route  through  burning  and  waterless  deserts  admitted, 
indeed,  of  little  mitigation ;  and  thousands  of  the  Ger 
mans  sank  under  fatigue,  agonizing  thirst,  and  the  per 
petual  assaults  of  the  Turcoman  hordes,  which  hung 
upon  their  flanks  and  rear.  But  the  firmness  of  the 
Teutonic  array  repulsed  every  attack,  and  prevented 
any  general  disaster;  and  Frederic  not  only  defeated 
the  Sultan  of  Iconium,  but  stormed  his  capital  and 
compelled  him  to  sue  for  peace.  Having  thus  over- 
borne all  opposition,  the  aged  hero  pursued  his  way 
in  unmolested  and  triumphant  ardour,  until  he  lost 
his  life  in  the  little  Cilician  stream  of  the  Calycadnus, 
either  by  a  fall  from  his  horse,  or  by  imprudently 
bathing  in  the  icy  waters  of  that  mountain  torrent. 
[A.  D.  1190.]  The  consequences  of  this  event  proved 
•  how  largely  his  followers  had  been  indebted  for  their 
success  to  the  greatness  of  his  personal  qualities.  The 
infidels,  recovering  from  the  terror  inspired  by  his 
name  and  actions,  immediately  renewed  their  hostili- 
ties on  the  report  of  his  death ;  and  thenceforth  the 
German  army  was  incessantly  harassed  by  attacks, 
and  nearly  disorganized  by  famine,  sickness,  and  the 
efforts  of  the  enemy.  Thus,  although  Frederic's  son. 
the  Duke  of  Swabia,  who  succeeded  to  the  command, 
was  neither  deficient  in  courage  nor  ability,  so  dread- 
ful were  the  losses  of  the  crusaders  that  before  they 


GERMANS    UNDERTAKE    THE    CRUSADE      255 

reached  the  Syrian  confines,  their  numbers  were  re- 
duced to  one-tenth  of  their  original  force.  Then 
array  was  still,  however,  sufficiently  formidable,  on 
their  arrival  at  Antioch,  to  deliver  that  principality 
from  the  oppression  of  Saladin,  whose  troops  retired 
at  their  approach;  and  from  thence  the  gallant  Duke 
of  Swabia,  with  unbroken  spirit,  led  the  remains  of 
the  German  army  to  reinforce  the  crusaders  before 
Acre ;  but  it  was  only  to  perish  himself  of  disease, 
with  some  thousands  of  his  devoted  and  way-worn 
followers,  under  the  walls  of  that  city.* 

The  arrival  of  the  German  chivalry  before  Acre 
was  followed  by  the  memorable  institution  of  a  mar- 
tial order  of  religious  knighthood,  which,  emulating 
the  design  of  the  fraternities  of  St.  John  and  of  the 
Temple,  and  surviving  the  original  object  of  its  crea- 
tion for  the  defence  of  Palestine,  was  fated  to  perform 
no  inconsiderable  part  in  the  subsequent  history  of 
Northern  Europe.  Above  half  a  century  before  the 
loss  of  Jerusalem,  a  German  crusader  and  his  lady  had 
founded  hospitals  in  that  capital  for  poor  pilgrims  of 
both  sexes  of  their  nation ;  and,  when  subsequent 
endowments  had  enriched  these  houses,  the  male  bre- 
thren were  moved  by  the  example  of  the  two  great 
orders,  to  devote  themselves  to  military  as  well  as 
charitable  services.  But  their  efforts  had  obtained 

*  Hist.  Hierosol.  p,  1156—1163.  Godfridi  Monachi  Annales,  p. 
348-356.  Tageno,  p.  407-416.  (Both  in  the  second  volume  of 
Struye's  edition  of  the  Rerum  German  Scriptores  of  Freher.) 


256  THE    T111RD    CRUSADE. 

little  distinction,  and  their  fraternity  was  dissolved  by 
the  expulsion  of  the  Christians  from  Jerusalem.  Its 
purposes  were  now  recalled  to  the  national  attention 
by  the  private  charity  of  some  individuals  among  the 
German  army,  who  supplied  the  want  of  regular  hos- 
pitals, by  opening  their  tents  before  Acre  for  the  re- 
ception of  their  sick  and  wounded  countrymen ;  and 
a  number  of  knights  joining  their  benevolent  associa- 
tion, the  Duke  of  Swabia  seized  the  occasion  to  incor- 
porate them,  for  the  national  honour,  into  a  regular 
order  of  religious  chivalry,  in  avowed  imitation  of 
those  of  the  Hospital  and  Temple.  A  papal  au- 
thority approved  the  design,  invested  the  new  order 
with  the  same  privileges  as  its  elder  co-fraterni- 
ties, and  ordained  the  rule  of  St.  Augustin  for  its 
government.  A  white  mantle  with  a  black  cross  was 
appointed  for  the  garb  of  the  brotherhood,  who  were 
divided  into  three  classes  of  noble  cavaliers,  priests 
and  sergeants,  all  exclusively  of  German  race ;  and 
thenceforth,  under  the  title  of  the  Teutonic  Knights 
of  St.  Mary  of  Jerusalem,  the  order  worthily  aspired 
to  an  equality  in  duties  and  honour  with  the  two 
great  martial  fraternities  of  Palestine.* 

*  Jacobus  a  Vit.  p.  1083. 


RICHARD    CCEUR    DE    LION. 


SECTION  n. 


EICHARD  CCEUR  DE   LION   IN  PALESTINE 


HILE  the 
German 
army  was 
still  thread- 
ing its  toil- 
some march 
through  the 
deserts  and 
mountain 

passes  of 
i  Asia  Minor, 
r  the  sove- 
-  reigns  of 

France  and 


258  THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 

England  had  availed  themselves  of  the  maritime 
position  and  resources  of  their  states  to  escape  the 
same  dangers  and  fatigues  by  a  naval  passage  to  the 
Syrian  shores.  Both  Philippe-Auguste  and  Richard 
Coeur  de  Lion  were  in  the  full  pride  of  youthful  am- 
bition, impatient  for  chivalric  distinction,  and  actuated 
far  more  by  the  thirst  of  glory  than  by  the  religious 
spirit  of  the  age.  Interchanging  vows  of  eternal 
friendship,  which  were  as  passionately  broken  in  the 
first  moment  of  jealous  excitement,  they  had  agreed 
to  combine  their  forces  for  the  sacred  expedition ;  and 
on  the  plain  of  Vezelay  in  France,  they  reviewed  a 
gallant  and  well-equipped  host,  which  amounted  to 
one  hundred  thousand  men  of  both  nations,  and  of  all 
arms.  Conducting  their  march  in  concert  as  far  as 
Lyons,  the  two  monarchs  separated  at  that  city,  after 
naming  the  port  of  Messina  in  Sicily  as  the  place  of 
reunion  for  their  combined  armaments :  Philippe 
leading  the  French  forces  to  embark  at  Genoa;  and 
Richard  proceeding  to  Marseilles  with  his  army, 
there  to  expect  the  arrival  of  his  fleet*  from  England." 


*  Before  his  departure  from  Normandy,  Richard  promulgated  a 
code  of  regulations  for  the  government  of  hia  fleet,  which,  as  illus- 
trative of  the  rude  principles  of  marine  jurisprudence  adopted  in  that 
age,  would  be  worthy  of  a  place  in  our  naval  history.  A  murderer 
was  to  be  tied  to  the  corpse  of  his  victim  and  cast  with  it  into  the  sea ; 
or  if  the  crime  were  committed  on  shore,  to  be  buried  in  the  same 
grave  with  the  dead  body.  A  simple  blow  was  to  be  punished  by 
the  immersion  of  the  offender  thrice  in  the  sea ;  but  if  blood  were 
drawn,  by  the  less  of  his  right  hand :  abusive  language  by  a  fine.  A 


RICHARD    C(ETTR    DE    LIQW.  259 

But  his  impatience  would  brook  no  delay;  and  find' 
ing  that  his  own  navy  had  not  reached  that  port,  he 
immediately  hired  a  few  vessels  for  the  conveyance 
of  his  suite,  sailed  for  the  Italian  coast,  and  after 
rashly  exposing  himself  to  several  dangerous  adven- 
tures,* crossed  into  Sicily.  Meanwhile  the  English 
fleet,  after  touching  at  Lisbon  on  its  way,  and  success- 
fully assisting  in  the  defence  of  Santarem  against  a 
Mussulman  army,  reached  the  Mediterranean  in 
safety,  received  the  land  forces  on  board  at  Marseilles, 
and  entered  the  port  of  Messina  some  days  before  the 
arrival  either  of  Philippe  or  Richard  himself.f 

In  Sicily  both  monarchs  wintered  with  their  forces; 
and  here  several  circumstances  arose  to  foment  into 
hatred  those  feelings  of  ambitious  rivalry  which 
naturally  sprang  from  their  conflicting  pride  and  pre- 
tensions. Against  Tancred,  the  reigning  king  of 


thief  was  to  have  his  head  shaved,  tarred  and  feathered ;  and  in  that 
state  to  be  set  on  shore  at  the  first  opportunity.  Hoveden,  p.  666. 

*  On  one  occasion,  when  travelling  in  Southern  Italy  with  a  single 
attendant,  he  entered  a  cottage  to  seize  a  falcon  which  he  heard  was 
detained  there:  for  it  seems  that  no  "base  churl"  might  without 
offence  possess  a  bird  trained  for  the  exclusive  sport  of  the  chivalrio 
order.  The  peasants  presumed  to  resist  his  violence ;  and  in  the 
broil,  as  he  struck  one  of  them,  who  had  drawn  a  dagger  upon  him, 
with  the  flat  of  his  sword,  the  weapon  broke ;  and  he  was  compelled 
to  defend  himself  with  stones  until  he  effected  his  retreat  to  a  neigh- 
bouring monastery.  Hoveden,  p.  672. 

f  Hoveden,  p.  664—673.  Galfridi  a  Vinesauf,  Itinerarium  Regit 
Anglorum  Richardi,  &c.  in  Terram.  Hierosol.  (apud  Gale.  Scrip* 
tures  Hist.  Anglican,  vol.  ii.)  p.  247-308. 


260 


THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 


Richard  Caeur  de  Lion, 

Sicily,  Richard  had  several  causes  of  resentment 
for  the  detention  in  prison  of  his  sister  Joan,  relict  of 
William  II.,  the  late  sovereign  of  the  island,  and  a 
refusal  either  to  restore  her  dower,  or  to  pay  legacies 
which  her  husband  had  bequeathed  to  the  English 
crown.  To  enforce  redress  for  these  injuries,  Richard 
had  recourse  to  very  violent  proceedings :  seized  a 
castle,  on  his  sister's  release,  for  her  residence,  took 
military  possession  of  other  posts,  and  allowed  his 
troops  to  commit  many  excesses.  While  the  French 


RICHARD    COZUR    DE    LION.  261 

king  was  interposing  as  a  mediator,  the  citizens  of 
Messina  were  provoked  to  attack  the  English,  and 
after  a  bloody  engagement,  in  which  the  latter  pre» 
vailed,  Richard  allowed  them  to  sack  the  city,  and 
planted  his  banners  on  its  walls.  Philippe  was 
justly  offended  at  an  outrage,  which  in  effect,  as  he 
resided  in  Messina,  left  him  a  prisoner  in  the  hands 
of  an  ally  who  was  also  his  vassal  j  and  Richard  was 
at  last  induced  to  appease  him  by  withdrawing  his 
troops.  The  submission  of  Tancred  to  all  the  de- 
mands of  the  English  monarch  restored  the  general 
peace ;  and  Richard  generously  sent  Philippe  twenty 
thousand  ounces  of  gold,  as  the  moiety  of  the  sum 
which  he  compelled  the  Sicilian  prince  to  pay  in 
satisfaction  of  his  claims.  He  also  loaded  both 
English  and  French  knights  with  presents;  and  on 
Christmas  day  feasted  the  whole  chivalry  of  the  two 
nations,  and  dismissed  every  individual  with  some 
largess  apportioned  to  his  rank.  His  prodigal  dissi- 
pation, by  such  means,  of  the  treasures  which  had 
been  wrung  from  his  subjects  before  his  departure  on 
the  Crusade,  exalted  his  popularity  in  both  armies  far 
above  that  of  his  more  provident  or  less  wealthy 
rival ;  and  formed  an  additional  source  of  jealousy  to 
Philippe.  A  new  ground  of  quarrel  between  the  two 
monarchs  was  soon  created  by  the  intelligence  that 
Richard,  disregarding  his  engagement  to  marry  Alice 
or  Adelia,  sister  of  Philippe,  was  about  to  espouse  the 
Princess  Berengaria,  daughter  of  Sancho,  king  of 


262  THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 


Navarre,  who,  in  effect,  soon  after  arrived  in  Sicily, 
escorted  by  the  queen-mother,  Eleanor  of  England. 
After  much  dispute,  Philippe  at  last  consented  to 
release  Richard  from  his  contract  upon  his  promise  to 
pay  ten  thousand  marks,  and  to  restore  Alice  with  the 
castles  which  had  been  assigned  as  her  dower.* 

Their  feuds  being  thus  terminated  by  a  hollow  re- 
conciliation, Philippe,  on  the  return  of  spring,  was 
the  first  to  depart  with  his  forces  from  the  Sicilian 
shores,  and  arrived  without  accident  at  the  Christian 
camp  before  Acre ;  but  Richard  was  less  fortunate  01 
prudent.  Off  the  coast  of  Crete,  his  fleet  was  dis- 
persed by  a  storm ;  and  at  Rhodes  his  fiery  temper 
was  roused  by  intelligence  that  two  of  his  vessels, 
which  had  been  wrecked  on  the  shores  of  Cyprus,  were 

*  Hoveden,  p.  673-688.     Vinesauf,  p.  308-316. 


RICHARD    CCEUR    DE    LION.  263 

plundered,  and  the  crews  detained  in  captivity.  To 
revenge  this  injury  he  sailed  for  Cyprus  ;  and,  having 
in  vain  demanded  reparation  of  Isaac,  a  prince  of 
Comnenian  race,  who  had  revolted  against  the  Byzan 
tine  throne  and  seized  the  government  of  the  island, 
the  English  monarch  disembarked  his  troops,  took 
Lymesol,  the  tyrant's  capital,  by  storm,  and,  being 
assisted  by  the  defection  of  the  islanders,  compelled 
him  to  surrender  at  discretion.  The  English  prince 
made  an  ungenerous  use  of  his  victory ;  for  he  threw 
the  fallen  usurper  into  chains,  which,  with  a  mockery 
of  respect,  were  forged  of  silver ;  grievously  taxed  the 
Cypriots,  who  had  welcomed  him  as  their  deliverer; 
and  asserted  the  title  of  conquest  to  the  lordship  of 
their  island.  After  celebrating  at  Lymesol  his  nup- 
tials with  Berengaria,  which  had  been  deferred  in 
Sicily  on  account  of  the  season  of  Lent,  Richard  finally 
sailed  for  Acre.  The  numbers  of  his  land  forces  have 
not  been  recorded ;  but  the  magnitude  of  the  whole 
armament  may  be  estimated  by  the  enumeration  of 
his  fleet,  which  consisted  of  fifty  galleys  of  war,  thir- 
teen large  store-vessels,  and  above  one  hundred  other 
transports  filled  with  horses  and  men.  On  the  short 
voyage  from  Cyprus  to  the  Syrian  shore,  the  English 
navy  intercepted  an  enormous  troop-ship  of  Saladin, 
having  on  board,  according  to  the  Latin  chroniclers, 
for  the  reinforcement  of  the  garrison  of  Acre,  the  in- 
credible number  of  fifteen  hundred  men,  and  well  sup- 
plied with  stores  of  the  Greek  fire.  The  great  bulk 


264 


THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 


and  lofty  sides  of  this  vessel  long  defied  the  attacks 
of  the  light  galleys  of  the  Christians;  but  she  was  at 
length  carried  by  boarding ;  her  hull  being  either  scut- 
tled, during  the  conflict,  by  the  desperation  of  her 
own  crew,  or  pierced  by  the  beaks  of  the  English  gal- 
leys, she  sank  with  all  her  stores ;  and  every  soul  of 
the  infidels,  except  thirty-five,  was  either  massacred 
or  drowned.* 

A  few  days  afterward  Rich- 
ard disembarked  his  army  be- 
fore Acre ;  and  his  arrival  was 
greeted  in  the  Christian  camp 
with  enthusiastic  rejoicings. 
Notwithstanding  the  previous 
junction  of  the  King  of  France 
and  his  forces,  the  operations 
of  the  long-protracted  siege  had 
continued  to  languish ;  but  the 
English  monarch  had  no  sooner 
landed  his  battering  engines 
than,  despite  of  an  illness  un- 
je  of  Acre.  <jer  which  he  was  labouring,  he 

caused  the  attack  to  be  pressed  with  the  utmost 
vigour;  and  as  well  by  his  personal  example  as  by 
prodigal  rewards,  animated  the  whole  crusading  host 

*  Hoveden,  p.  688-692.  Vinesauf,  p.  316-329.  Bohadin,  p. 
166.  But  the  Mussulman  historian  rates  the  troops  on  board  this 
'great  store-ship  at  only  six  hundred  and  fifty,  still  indicating  in  the 
vessel  a  bulk  very  unusual  for  the  times. 


EICHARD    C(EUR    DE    LION. 


265 


Movable  Towers  used  in  Sieges. 

with  a  new  spirit.  Every  effort  of  Saladin  to  rout 
the  besiegers  or  relieve  the  place  was  repulsed ;  and 
at  length,  after  an  heroic  resistance,  finding  their  de- 
fences shattered  on  every  side  and  their  numbers  daily 
diminished,  the  exhausted  and  despairing  garrison 
obtained  the  reluctant  permission  of  the  sultan  to 
capitulate.  Upon  condition  that  Saladin  should  re- 
store the  wood  of  the  true  cross  which  he  had  taken 
in  Jerusalem,  release  fifteen  hundred  chosen  Christian 
captives,  deliver  up  Acre,  and  ransom  the  garrison  by 
the  payment  of  two  hundred  thousand  pieces  of  gold, 


266 


THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 


Tower  and  Battering-ram. 

the  monarchs  of  France  and  England  agreed  to  spare 
the  lives  of  all  the  Mussulmans  in  the  place.  Upon 
these  terms  the  city  was  surrendered ;  and  the  banner 
of  the  cross  was  again  planted  on  its  ruined  walls. 
The  garrison  and  inhabitants,  with  the  exception  of 
some  thousand  hostages,  were  permitted  to  depart 
unmolested ;  and  the  sultan  immediately  broke  up  his 
camp  and  withdrew  from  the  vicinity  of  the  captured 
fortress.  His  subsequent  failure,  from  reluctance,  or 
more  probably  from  inability,  to  pay  the  ransom  of  the 
prisoners  within  the  stipulated  period,  was  the  signal 
for  a  tragedy  horribly  characteristic  of  the  barbarous  and 
fanati«al  spirit  of  crusading  warfare.  The  Mussulman 
hostages,  to  the  number  of  above  five  thousand,  being 
led  out  from  the  city  to  the  French  and  English 
camps.,  were  slaughtered  in  cold  blood ;  and  Richard 
himself,  in  a  letter  still  extant,  boasted  of  the  massa- 
cre as  an  acceDtable  service  to  Heaven.  The  sultan 
was  not  slow  to  revenge  this  cruelty  in  the  blood  of 


RICHARD    C(EUR     DE     LION. 


267 


Richard  Cosur  de  Lion  at  Acre. 


his  Christian  captives;  and  on  both  sides  repeated 
butcheries  continued  to  darken  the  mutual  hatred  of 
the  combatants.* 


*  Hoveden,  p.  692-698.  Vinesauf,  p.  329-346.  Bohadin,  p 
180-188.  Hoveden,  indeed,  declares  that  the  massacre  of  the  Chris- 
tian captives  by  Saladin  preceded  that  of  the  Turkish  hostages  by 
Richard;  but  Bohaden  says  otherwise;  and  it  is  not  probable  that 
the  sultan  would  thus  have  provoked  the  destruction  of  his  people, 
whom  he  had  wished  to  save.  The  expressions  in  Richard's  letter, 
as  given  in  Hoveden,  (p.  698,)  are  (Thus,  as  in  duty  bound,  we  put 
them  to  death,)  Sic  ut  decuit,  fecimus  expiare ;  and  no  writer  in 
that  fanatical  age  seems  to  have  imagined  that  even  the  cold-blooded 
slaughter  of  infidels  could  be  otherwise  than  meritorious  and  '.cccpt- 
able  to  Heaven.  The  old  romance  of  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion  goes 
yet  a  step  further;  for  it  exaggerates  the  glorious  deed  into  the  murder 
of  sixty  thousand  infidels;  and  the  author,  imagining  thr.t  the  sub- 


268  THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 

The  capture  of  Acre  was  hailed  by  the  Christians 
as  a  glad  omen  of  the  recovery  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 
But  these  sanguine  anticipations  were  shortly  chilled 
by  the  retirement  of  the  King  of  France  from  the 
Crusade.  The  causes  of  this  secession,  for  which  se- 
vere illness  afforded  some  plea,  have  been  sought  in 
feelings  of  jealousy  at  the  superior  glory  won  during 
the  siege  of  Acre  by  the  liberality  and  prowess  of  his 
royal  associate.  The  eminent  political  abilities  of% 
Philippe-Auguste,  indeed,  though  they  placed  him  in 
sober  estimation  at  an  immeasurable  distance  above 
his  irrational  and  fiery  rival,  were  of  little  weight  in 
the  fields  of  Palestine ;  the  martial  qualities  by  which 
he  was  himself  distinguished  would  sustain  no  com- 
parison with  the  transcendent  personal  heroism  of  the 
"Lion-hearted"  Plantagenet;  and  he  who,  in  the 
annals  of  Europe,  figures  as  the  ablest  monarch  and 
most  renowned  conqueror  of  his  age,  is  discerned  only 
through  the  wild  romance  of  the  Crusades  as  the  en- 
vious or  recreant  deserter  from  a  holy  war.  But  the 
withdrawal  of  Philippe  was  produced  less  by  any  in- 
ject deserved  to  be  associated  with  pleasurable  emotions,  thus  pre- 
faces the  tale  of  the  butchery  with  a  poetical  descant  on  the  charms 
of  the  vernal  season  : — 

"  Merry  is,  in  time  of  May 

When  fowlis  sing  in  her  lay 

Floweres  on  apple-trees  and  perry 

Small  fowles  sing  merry 

Ladies  strew  her  bowers 

With  red  roses  and  lily  flowers,"  &c. 

Ellis,  Specimens  of  Metrical  Ronances,  vol.  ii  278. 


RICHARD    CCEUR    DE    LION.  269 

consistency  in  his  own  character  than  by  the  intem- 
perate conduct  of  Richard.  The  reckless  spirit  with 
which  the  English  king  had  already  wasted  so  much 
of  the  season  for  action  in  Sicily  and  Cyprus,  and  the 
intolerable  arrogance  of  pretensions  that  would  brook 
no  control,  alike  foreboded  any  but  a  happy  issue  to 
the  confederacy  of  which  he  was  so  puissant  a  mem- 
ber; and,  unless  the  King  of  France  had  been  pre- 
pared to  submit  unconditionally  to  his  capricious  and 
haughty  dictation,  their  separation  might  alone  avert 
an  open  rupture,  and  the  total  ruin  of  the  Crusade. 
The  real  disgrace  of  Philip  was  his  subsequent  perfidy 
in  attacking  the,  dominions  of  his  absent  rival,  con- 
trary to  the  solemn  oath  which  Richard  exacted  from 
him  on  his  departure ;  but  the  interests  of  the  Cru- 
sade itself  were  promoted  by  his  abandoning  to  his 
rival  the  undivided  possession  of  the  supreme  com- 
mand; and,  as  an  evidence  of  his  sincerity  in  the 
cause,  he  left  with  Richard  ten  thousand  of  his  best 
troops  under  the  conduct  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy.* 

After  the  retirement  of  the  French  king,  Richard 
prepared  to  resume  the  design  of  the  war,f  and  still 

*  fioveden,  p.  697.  Vinesauf,  p.  344.  That  Richard,  however, 
was  greatly  incensed  at  his  rival's  desertion,  is  evident  from  the  in- 
temperate expressions  of  his  letter. 

f  He  had  some  difficulty  in  inducing  his  army  to  quit  the  licen- 
tious pleasures  of  Acre :  a  city  so  abounding,  according  to  Vinesauf, 
vino  peroptimo  et  puettis  pulcherrimis,  (in  choicest  wines  and  fairest 
damsels,)  that  by  deep  potations  the  countenances  of  the  gravest 
warriors  in  the  host  had  contracted  a  disgraceful  rubicundity. 


270  THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 

found  himself  able  to  muster  nearly  thirty  thousand 
English,  French,  and  German  warriors  under  the 
standard  of  the  cross.  He  conducted  the  advance  of 
this  combined  force  from  Acre  in  a  southerly  direction 
upon  Jaffa,  along  the  sea-shore ;  and  in  the  order  of 
his  march  no  inconsiderable  share  of  military  skill 
and  discipline  is  observable.  Nearest  to  the  coast, 
and  in  communication  with  the  English  fleet,  which 
attended  the  expedition  with  supplies  of  provisions 
and  stores,  were  the  camp-train  and  followers ;  while 
the  army  itself,  covering  these  accessories,  moved  in 
five  divisions :  the  Templars  in  the  van,  the  Hospi- 
tallers closing  up  the  rear ;  and  the  archers  and  other 
light-armed  foot  on  the  left  or  outward"  flank  to  check 
with  their  missiles  the  desultory  but  galling  onsets  of 
the  Turkish  cavalry.  By  day,  clouds  of  these  horse- 
men hovered  around  the  front,  flank,  and  rear  of  the 
Christians,  and  harassed  their  march  with  incessant 
assaults :  by  night,  Saladin  encamped  in  their  vicinity, 
and  broke  the  repose  of  the  wearied  soldiery  with 
frequent  alarms.  But  the  firm  array,  the  unshaken 
valour,  and  the  patient*  determination  of  the  Europe- 
ans, exhausted  all  the  artifices  of  Asiatic  warfare. 
The  daily  march  was  accomplished  in  compact  array, 

*  The  heroic  fortitude  of  the  crusaders  is  attested  by  the  unsuspi- 
cious evidence  of  an  enemy  and  an  eye-witness.  Many  of  them 
who  had  received  several  Turkish  arrows  at  a  time  in  their  chain- 
mail,  the  thick  cloth  lining  of  which  alone  protected  them  from 
wounds,  marched  on,  while  these  shafts  bristled  on  their  backs,  with 
K  firm  step  and  calm  demeanour.  Bohadin,  p.  189. 


RICHARD    CCEUR     DE    HON.  271 

and  with  a  slow  but  resolute  advance ;  at  sunset  the 
army  regularly  halted ;  and  thrice  during  the  night 
the  loud  voices  of  the  heralds,  breaking  the  deep  si- 
lence of  the  camp  with  solemn  injunction  to  remem- 
ber the  Holy  Sepulchre,  roused  the  slumbering  senti- 
nels of  the  religious  host  to  watchfulness  and  prayer. 
At  length  Saladin,  reinforced  by  new  swarms  of  the 
Moslems  from  all  parts  of  his  empire,  and  finding 
every  desultory  attempt  to  arrest  the  progress  of  the 
Christians  unavailing,  resolved  upon  one  mighty  effort 
to  accomplish  their  total  destruction.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  the  sixteenth*  day  after  the  advance  of  the 
crusaders  from  Acre,  when  near  Azotus,  the  brazen 
kettle-drum  of  the  sultan  sounded  the  attack;  and 
the  whole  infidel  host  was  suddenly  precipitated,  in 
one  tremendous  charge,  upon  the  Christian  array.  So 
rapid  and  furious  was  the  onset,  so  vast'y  superior 
were  the  numbers  of  the  assailants,  and  so  over- 
whelming the  force  and  weight  of  the  shock,  that  the 
small  squadrons  of  the  crusaders,  enclosed  within  their 
own  infantry,  were  for  a  time  crushed  together  from 
all  sides  by  the  pressure.  Galled  by  the  Turkish 
arrows,  the  chivalry  impatiently  demanded  permission 
to  extricate  themselves  by  a  charge;  but  the  fiery 
Plantagenet,  now  alone  calm,  cool,  and  collected,  and 

*  Not  the  eleventh,  as  the  exact  Gibbon  (c.  lix.)  with  unusual 
inaccuracy  has  stated ;  for  Richard  commenced  his  march  from  Acre 
on  the  22d  of  August,  and  the  battle  of  Azotus  was  fought  on  the 
7th  of  September.  Hoveden  and  Vinesauf,  in  locis. 


272 


THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 


Richard  I.  at  Azotus. 


foreseeing  a  decisive  \ictory, 
restrained  the  impetuosity  of 
his  knights,  until  he  observed 
that  the  quivers  of  the  infidels 
were  emptied  and  their  strength 
exhausted.  Then,  causing  the 
infantry  to  open  out,  he  led 
and  let  loose  the  Christian  chi- 
valry in  all  directions  upon  the 
wavering  enemy.  The  whole 
Turkish  host,  unable  to  resist 
the  vigour  and  strength  of  these 
steel-clad  squadrons,  broke  and 
fled  to  the  adjacent  hills.  So 
successful  and  sanguinary  were  the  charge  and  pursuit, 
that  above  twenty  emirs  and  seven  thousand  of  the 
flower  of  the  Turkish  cavalry  were  slain  on  the  field; 
and  the  result  justified  the  boast  of  Richard,  that,  in 
forty  campaigns,  the  veteran  sultan  had  never  sus- 
tained so  severe  a  defeat.* 

After  this  signal  victory,  the  crusaders,  without  fur- 
ther molestation  by  the  infidels,  pursued  their  tri- 
umphant march  to  Jaffa ;  and,  Saladin  having  wisely 
destroyed  the  works  of  fortresses  which  he  was  hope- 
less of  preserving,  they  took  possession  both  of  that 
city  and  Caesarea,  with  other  dismantled  castles  in 
their  vicinity.  It  is  said  that  Richard  desired  at  once 


Hoveden,  p.  698.     Vinesauf,  p.  346-360. 


RICHARD    CCEUR    DE    LJON.  273 

to  have  followed  up  his  success  by  advancing  against 
Jerusalem,  but  was  prevented  by  the  factious  opposi- 
tion of  the  French  barons,  who,  seconded  by  the  wish 
of  the  army  to  repose  from  their  fatigues,  insisted  upon 
the  necessity  of  first  rebuilding  the  fortifications  of 
Jaffa  and  its  dependencies.*  However  this  might 
have  been,  two  months  were  consumed,  in  restoring 
these  works,  and  in  vain  negotiations  with  Saladin,f 
before  the  crusaders  again  moved  forward  toward 
Jerusalem.  They  penetrated  without  serious  opposi- 

*  During  this  cessation  of  active  hostilities,  Richard,  while  pur- 
suing the  sport  of  falconry  with  his  usual  imprudence,  beyond  the 
precints  of  the  Christian  lines,  was  attacked  by  a  party  of  Saracens, 
and  only  escaped  captivity  or  death  through  the  generous  devotion 
of  a  Provencal  knight  named  Guillaume  de  Pratelles,  who  drew  off 
the  attention  of  the  enemy  by  feigning  to  be  the  king,  and  as  such 
surrendered  himself.  Richard  proved  not  ungrateful;  for  his  last 
care  in  Palestine  was  to  ransom  his  preserver.  Vinesauf,  p.  372. 

f  In  the  course  of  these  negotiations,  which  were  more  than  once 
interrupted  and  resumed,  Richard  and  Saladin  seem  to  have  se- 
riously entertained  a  singular  project  for  an  accommodation  of  the 
Christian  and  Moslem  interests  by  means  of  a  marriage  between 
Saphadin,  or  Malec-al-Adel,  the  brother  of  the  Sultan,  and  the 
widowed  queen  of  Sicily,  sister  of  the  English  king,  who  had  ac- 
companied him  to  Palestine.  With  his  Christian  bride,  the  Mussul- 
man prince  was  to  receive  from  his  brother  the  sovereignty  of  Jeru- 
salem ;  but  the  whole  design,  according  to  Bohadin,  though  agreea- 
ble to  both  Saladin  and  Richard,  was  frustrated  by  the  repugnance 
of  both  Asiatics  and  Europeans  to  so  unnatural  an  alliance.  Bo- 
hadin, p.  209.  During  the  negotiations,  the  two  armies  mingled  in 
constant  and  amicable  intercourse ;  and  frequent  kindnesses  were 
interchanged  between  their  sovereigns.  When  Richard  was  ill, 
Saladin  sent  him  the  choicest  fruits,  and  the  yet  greater  refreshment 
of  snow  during  the  burning  heats  of  summer.  Hoveden,  p.  693. 

18 


274  THE    THIRD    CRUSADE, 

tion  to  Ramula  within  a  short  distance  of  the  Holy 
City.  But  here  the  inclemency  of  the  season,  want 
of  provisions,  and  the  consequent  and  alarming  in- 
crease of  sickness,  arrested  their  march ;  and  Richard 
himself  admitted  the  present  hopelessness  of  success. 
The  army,  therefore,  fell  back  to  the  coast ;  and  the 
winter  was  spent  by  the  soldiery  in  repairing  the  walls 
of  several  of  the  conquered  fortresses,  and  by  their 
leaders  in  treacherous  intrigues  or  violent  dissensions, 
At  length,  on  the  return  of  spring,  Richard  so  far  suc- 
ceeded in  restoring  unanimity  as  to  assemble  all  the 
Christian  forces  in  Palestine  under  his  standard ;  and 
at  their  head  again  he  advanced  toward  Jerusalem. 
The  general  enthusiasm  of  the  army  was  kindled  by 
the  renovated  hope  of  success ;  the  chieftains  and 
soldiery  joined  in  a  solemn  oath  that  they  would  not 
quit  Palestine  until  the  Sepulchre  of  Christ  should  be 
redeemed  ;  and  when  the  army  reached  the  valley  of 
Hebron,  and  arrived  even  in  sight  of  the  Holy  City, 
the  accomplishment  of  their  vows  seemed  at  hand. 
The  Moslems  were  filled  with  consternation ;  num- 
bers fled  from  Jerusalem ;  and  even  Saladin  despaired 
of  preserving  his  proudest  conquest.* 

But,  at  this  critical  juncture,  the  sultan  was  de- 
livered from  his  apprehensions  by  the  unexpected 
retreat  of  the  crusading  host.  [A.  D.  1192.]  The 
causes  of  this  failure  are  variously  ascribed  by  the 

*  Hoveden,  p.  698-714.  Vinesauf,  p.  360-409.  Bohadin,  p. 
188-237.  Abulfeda,  p.  50-52. 


RICHARD     CCEUR     DE     LIOX. 


275 


Hebron. 


Christian  chronicles  to  the  contemplated  difficulties 
of  a  siege,  to  the  envious  or  treasonable  defection  of 
the  Duke  of  Burgundy  and  his  French  followers,  and 
to  the  indecision  of  Richard  himself.  But  the  best 
attested  account  is  that  which  refers  the  abandonment 
of  the  enterprise  to  the  act  of  the  king.*  Whether 
he  was  swayed  by  his  usual  impulses  of  caprice,  urged 

*  Vinesauf,  p.  409.     Bohadin,  p.  237- 


276  .        THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 

to  hasten  his  return  to  Europe  by  repeated  intelli- 
gence of  the  dangerous  machinations  of  his  faithless 
brother  and  rival,  or  secretly  conscious  that  the  re- 
sources of  the  Crusade  were  unequal  to  the  capture 
of  Jerusalem,  it  is  vain  to  inquire.  But  he  sud- 
denly paused  in  his  operations ;  and,  when  its  walls 
were  within  his  view,  proposed  the  appointment  of  a 
council,  selected  from  among  the  barons  of  Palestine 
and  the  chiefs  of  the  military  orders,  to  decide  upon 
oath  if  it  were  preferable  to  engage  in  the  siege  of  the 
Holy  City,  or  to  make  a  diversion  against  Damascus 
or  Cairo.  To  the  general  surprise  and  disappoint- 
ment, the  council  decided  upon  the  expediency  of  de- 
ferring the  enterprise  before  them ;  and  Richard, 
amid  the  discontent  of  the  whole  army,  commenced 
a  second  and  final  retreat  to  the  sea-coast.  Yet, 
whatever  were  the  motives  of  necessity  or  incon- 
stancy which  dictated  this  resolve,  he  poignant.y  felt 
the  mortification  or  shame  of  his  failure ;  and,  when 
one  of  his  followers  led  him  to  a  height  from  whence 
he  might  take  his  last  view  of  Jerusalem,  he  hid  his 
face  in  his  shield,  exclaiming  that  he  who  was  unable 
to  rescue,  was  unworthy  to  look  upon  the  Sepulchre 
of  Christ.* 

Saladin  was  not  slow  to  reap  his  advantage  on  the 
retreat  of  the  crusaders;  and,  finding  that  Richard 
had  continued  his  march  from  Jaffa  to  Acre,  he  poured 

*  Horeden,  p.  715.     Vinesauf,  ubi  suprd. 


RICHARD    CCEUR    DE    LION.  277 

down  from  the  hills  with  his  troops  on  the  former 
city,  and  assaulted  the  place  so  unexpectedly,  that 
numbers  of  the  Christian  garrison  and  inhabitants 
were  slain  in  the  streets,  and  the  remainder  only  saved 
their  lives  by  shutting  themselves  up  in  some  of  the 
towers.  They  had  already  been  reduced  to  sue  for  a 
capitulation,  when  Richard  arrived  off  the  port  to 
their  succour.  He  had  prepared  to  embark  for  Eu- 
rope before  he  heard  of  their  danger;  but  fired  with 
indignation  that  Saladin  should  have  renewed  the 
offensive  while  his  foot  was  still  on  the  strand  of  Pa- 
lestine, he  threw  himself  into  a  galley,  and,  followed 
only  by  a  few  knights  and  archers  in  six  other  vessels, 
sailed  for  Jaffa,  leaving  his  army  to  retrace  their 
march  after  him  along  the  coast.  When  his  small 
squadron  had  approached  the  shore,  finding  that  some 
of  the  garrison  still  held  out,  he  plunged  into  the  sea ; 
his  attendants  inspired  by  his  heroic  example,  quickly 
followed,  and  the  opposing  Moslems  on  the  beach  were 
so  dismayed  by  the  fury  of  the  attack,  that  they  fled 
before  this  handful  of  assailants,  and  abandoned  Jaffa 
to  its  deliverers.  Though  Richard,  including  the  res- 
cued garrison,  had  with  him  only  fifty-five  knights, 
cf  whom  but  ten  were  mounted,  and  two  thousand 
foot-soldiers,  he  displayed  his  contempt  for  the  infidels 
by  encamping  without  the  gates ;  and  in  this  situa- 
tion, on  the  morrow  of  his  arrival,  the  -Turkish 
cavalry,  recovering  from  their  surprise,  and  ascer- 
taining the  scantiness  of  his  force,  attacked  him  with 


278 


THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 


Richard  Cceur  de  Lion  at  the  battle  of  Jaffa. 

overwhelming  numbers.  He  not  only  sustained  their 
repeated  charges,  but  each  time  rushed  into  the  thick- 
est of  their  squadrons  at  the  head  of  his  ten  knights, 
and  everywhere  carried  death  and  confusion  into  their 
ranks.  Never  had  even  he  performed  such  prodigies 
of  valour  and  personal  strength ;  whole  squadrons  of 
the  quailing  infidels  fled  before  his  single  arm ;  and 
the  Mussulman  writers  themselves  are  the  most  ad- 
miring witnesses  and  wannest  eulogists  of  these  in- 
credible exploits.*  Night  put  an  end  to  the  unequal 

*  This  concurrent  testimony  of  Christian  and  Mohammedan 
writers  compels  history  to  ascribe  to  Richard  feats  of  personal  he- 
roism, which  might  otherwise  be  dismissed  as  the  dreams  or  romance. 


RICHARD    C(EUR    DE    LION.  275 

combat;  but  so  hopeless  was  Saladin  of  prevailing 
against  the  hero,  that  he  raised  the  siege  of  Jaffa 
without  any  further  attempt.* 

This  was  the  last  and  most  brilliant  achievement 
of  the  lion-hearted  king  on  the  shores  of  Palestine ; 
and  with  it  ended  the  third  Crusade.  The  exertions 
of  Richard  brought  on  a  fever  which  increased  his 
longing  desire  to  return  to  Europe ;  and  the  awe  in- 
spired by  his  prowess  and  victory  facilitated  his  over- 
tures for  a  renewal  of  former  negotiations.  Saladin 
himself  was  weary  of  fruitless  hostilities,  and  lan- 
guishing under  a  bodily  decline,  which  in  a  few 
months  bowed  him  to  the  grave.  Richard  consented 
to  dismantle  the  fortifications  of  Ascalon,  which,  aa 
the  key  of  Egypt  from  the  Syrian  frontiers,  was  in 
the  hands  of  the  Christians  an  object  of  jealous  dis- 

Such  was  the  admiration  which  he  extorted  from  his  enemies,  that 
Saphadin,  during  his  last  action  before  Jaffa,  observing  him  dis- 
mounted, sent  him  two  Arabian  horses,  on  one  of  which  he  con- 
tinued the  conflict  until  nightfall.  Some  time  before,  the  same 
Turkish  prince  had  solicited  and  obtained,  at  the  hands  of  the  Chris- 
tian hero,  the  honour  of  knighthood  for  his  son.  But  the  most 
striking  proof  of  the  reality  of  his  astonishing  prowess,  is  the  en- 
during terror  in  which  his  very  memory  was  held  by  the  Moslems ; 
for,  above  half  a  century  after  his  fiery  spirit  had  been  quenched  in 
the  grave,  "  his  tremendous  name  was  employed  by  Syrian  mothers 
to  silence  their  infants;  and  if  a  horse  suddenly  started  from  his 
way,  his  rider  was  wont  to  exclaim,  '  Dost  thou  think  King  Richard 
is  in  the  bush  ?'  Guides  tu  que  ce  soft  le  Roi  Richart  ?"  Gibbon, 
ch.  lix  from  Joinville. 

*  Vinesauf,  p.  412-421.  Bohadin,  p.  238-249.  Abulfeda, 
p.  52. 


280  THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 

quietude  to  the  Sultan ;  and  the  latter  on  his  part 
agreed  to  leave  them  in  unmolested  possession  of 
Tyre,  Acre,  and  Jaffa,  with  all  the  maritime  territory 
between  the  first  and  last  of  those  cities ;  to  abstain 
also  from  attacking  the  territories  of  the  Prince 
of  Antioch  and  Count  of  Tripoli,  and  to  grant  all 
Christian  pilgrims  free  access  to  the  holy  places  of 
Jerusalem.  Upon  these  terms  the  two  monarchs  con- 
cluded a  truce  between  the  nations  of  their  respective 
faiths  for  three  years  and  three  months ;  and  Richard, 
embarking  at  Acre,  bade  a  last  adieu  to  the  scene  of 
his  glory,  and  commenced  that  homeward  voyage,  of 
which  we  are  in  another  place  to  relate  the  calami- 
tous issue.* 

Such  was  the  termination  of  the  third  Crusade. 
Its  grand  object  in  the  recapture  of  Jerusalem  had 
not  been  accomplished ;  but  the  total  ruin  with  which 
the  affairs  of  the  Latin  kingdom  were  threatened  by 
the  fatal  defeat  at  Tiberias  had  been  averted ;  the 
tide  of  Mussulman  conquest  was  arrested;  and  a 
great  part  of  the  sea-coast  of  Palestine,  with  its  chain 
of  fortresses,  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Christians. 
The  recovery  or  preservation  of  this  territory,  which 
for  eighty  years  deferred  the  final  triumph  of  "the 
Moslems,  was  chiefly  attributable  to  the  heroic  achieve- 
ments of  the  English  king ;  and,  but  for  his  intemper- 
ance and  caprice,  even  greater  advantages  might  have 

*  Vinesauf,  p.  422.     Boliadin,  p.  260. 


RICHARD    CCEUR    DE    LION.  281 

been  reaped  from  his  splendid  exploits.  Yet  it  may 
be  doubted  whether  his  want  of  complete  success  was 
not  full  as  much  produced  by  the  political  vices  of  the 
Latin  states,  as  by  the  errors  of  his  own  conduct. 
The  factions  nursed  in  Palestine  during  the  feeble 
reign  of  the  leper  Baldwin  IV.  had  grown  into  uncon- 
trollable strength  and  violence ;  their  quarrels  were 
embraced  by  the  crusaders  from  Europe;  and  even 
while  the  victories  of  Saladin  threatened  to  involve 
all  parties  in  a  common  ruin,  the  dissensions  of  the 
Christians  were  more  dangerous  to  the~  general  cause 
than  the  arms  of  their  infidel  enemies.  The  conflict- 
ing pretensions  of  aspirants  to  the  Latin  throne  of 
Palestine  supplied  a  constant  subject  of  disunion.  By 
the  death  of  his  consort  Sybilla  and  her  children, 
during  the  siege  of  Acre,  the  worthless  Lusignan  had 
lost  his  only  title  to  a  matrimonial  crown;  and  he 
found  a  formidable  competitor  in  Conrad,  the  gallant 
prince  of  Tyre,  who  had  espoused  Isabella,  or  Meli- 
cent,  sister  of  the  late  queen.  From  their  personal 
enmity,  the  King  of  England  supported  the  cause  of 
Lusignan,  and  the  French  monarch  that  of  Conrad 
and  his  consort.  After  the  departure  of  Philippe, 
Richard,  to  suppress  a  civil  war,  found  it  necessary  to 
recognise  the  royal  title  of -Conrad,  and  consoled  Lu- 
signan with  the  crown  of  Cyprus ;  but  this  accommo- 
dation was  scarcely  concluded,  when  Conrad  was  mur 
dered  in  the  streets  of  Tyre  by  two  of  the  Hassassins, 
or  followers  of  a  fanatical  Mohammedan  chieftain, 


282  THE    THIRD    CRUSADE. 

whose  systematic  employment  of  the  dagger  against 
their  enemies  introduced  a  new  term  into  the  Ian 
guages  of  Europe.  By  the  partisans  of  Conrad,  his 
murder  was  imputed  to  the  instigation  of  Richard ; 
and  this  charge  was  made  the  plea  for  new  dissen- 
sions ;  but  all  evidence  of  the  open  and  fearless  impe- 
tuosity of  Plantagenet's  temper  is  opposed  to  the 
belief  that,  if  he  had  sought  the  life  of  Conrad,  he 
would  not  have  stooped  to  so  perfidious  and  dastardly  a 
mode  of  gratifying  his  enmity.*  The  widow  of  Con- 
rad accepted  the  hand  of  Henry,  Count  of  Cham- 
pagne, who  in  right  of  this  marriage  was  recognised, 
both  by  the  public  voice  and  the  assent, of  Richard,  as 
King  of  Jerusalem  ;j-  and  his  undisputed  assumption 
of  the  visionary  title  at  length  removed  one  of  the 


*  Bohadin,  indeed,  (p.  22f>.)  asserts  that  the  murderers,  who  were 
taken  and  put  to  the  torture,  confessed  that  they  were  employed  by 
the  King  of  England;  but  both  Yinesau-f  (p.  377)  and  Hoveden 
(p.  _7 17)  agree  in  reporting  the  declaration  of  the  Hassassins,  that 
they  had  killed  Conrad  in  revenge  for  an  injury  which  he  had  offered 
to  their  chief;  and  this  version  of  the  tale  has  great  internal  proba- 
bility. Richard,  in  fact,  since  his  reconciliation  ^  had  nothing  to 
gain  by  the  crime ;  and  Conrad  himself  so  little  ospected  him  as, 
on  his  death-bed,  to  desire  his  widow  to  commit  the  fortress  of  Tyre 
to  the  keeping  of  the  English  prince.  No  conclusion,  either  of  the 
innocence  or  guilt  of  Richard,  is  fairly  to  be  drawn  from  the  excul- 
patory letter  from  the  chief  of  the  Hassasstns,  an  evident  forgery 
subsequently  produced  at  Lis  trial  before  the  Imperial  German  Diet 
Foedera,  vol.  i.  71. 

f  For  these  political  transactions  during  the  third  Crusade,  sea 
chiefly  Vinesauf,  p.  324,  377,  392. 


RICHARD    CCEUR    DE    LION.  283 

means  by  which  the  factions  of  Palestine  had  aggra- 
vated the  disasters  of  the  Christian  cause. 

But  the  Christians  in  Palestine  were  indebted  for 
their  safety,  after  the  third  Crusade,  far  less  to  any 
union  among  themselves  than  to  the  death  of  their 
formidable  enemy.  Saladin*  only  survived  his  treaty 
with  Richard  a  few  months ;  and  on  his  decease  the 
great  empire  which  he  had  consolidated  was  almost 
immediately  dissolved.  In  its  division,  three  of  hia 
numerous  sons  erected  distinct  thrones  at  Cairo,  Da- 
mascus, and  Aleppo ;  but  most  of  his  veteran  soldiery 
preferred  to  range  themselves  under  the  standard  of 
his  brother  Saphadin ;  and  at  their  head  that  prince 
carved  out  for  himself,  at  the  expense  of  his  nephews, 
a1  considerable  sovereignty  in  Syria.  [A.  D.  1193.] 


*  The  really  great  qualities  of  Saladin  have  sometimes  been  too 
absolutely  lauded;  for,  as  Mr.  Mills  has  well  observed,  (Ilist.  of 
Crusades,  vol.  ii.  82,)  his  character  was  but  a  "compound  of  dig- 
nity anoT  baseness."  He  had  established  his  throne  over  the  Mos- 
lems by  treachery  and  bloodshed ;  and  his  first  successes  against  the 
Christians  had  been  stained  by  atrocious  cruelty.  But  his  govern- 
ment of  his  own  people,  after  his  power  was  secure,  was  mild  and 
equitable;  as  a  Mussulman,  in  his  latter  years,  he  was  eminently 
pious,  just,  and  charitable ;  and  we  have  seen  that,  even  toward  ene- 
mies, he  was  sometimes  capable  of  the  most  magnanimous  and  gene- 
rous conduct.  He  is,  perhaps,  the  brightest  exemplar  in  history  of 
an  Asiatic  hero ;  and  his  virtues,  like  the  dark  traits  which  ob- 
scured them,  exhibit  the  genuine  lineaments  of  his  clime  and  race. 


THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 


285 


CHAPTER  IV. 


tfrnsafc*. 


SECTION   I.— THE   FRENCH,   GERMANS,  AND   ITALIANS   UNITE 
IN   THE   CRUSADE. 


T  this  stage  of  the  narra- 
tive considerable  difficulty  is 
felt  by  the  historian  in  ar- 
ranging chronologically  the 
series  of  events  that  crowd 
so  rapidly  upon  him,  and  it 
must  be  understood  that 


286  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

the  opening  sentences  of  this  chapter  relate  to  inci- 
dents that  preceded  by  years  what  it  is  customary 
to  call  the  FOURTH  CRUSADE. 

At  the  expiration  of  the  three  years'  truce  which 
the  English  king  had  negotiated,  the  dissensions  of 
the  infidels  revived  in  the  Christians  the  fond  hope 
of  reconquering  Jerusalem ;  and  at  the  instigation  of 
the  military  orders,  a  new  Crusade*  was  proclaimed 
by  Pope  Celestin  III.  Throughout  France  and  Eng- 
land, from  whatever  causes,  the  appeal  was  heard 
with  indifference ;  but  in  Germany  the  design  was 
promoted  by  some  momentary  schemes  of  ambition 
which  the  emperor — the  execrable  Henry  VI. — ap- 
pears to  have  cherished  of  aggran'dizing  himself  in  the 
East;  and,  supported  by  his  influence,  the  preaching 
of  the  clergy  in  that  country  was  so  successful,  that 
the  Cross  was  enthusiastically  taken  by  many  princes 
and  prelates  of  the  empire,  and  by  vast  numbers  of 
nobles  and  persons  of  inferior  rank.  Thus  composed, 
three  great  armaments,  all  from  Germany,  succes- 
sively reached  the  port  of  Acre,  and  raised  the  most 


*  As  the  exhortation  of  the  pope  to  the  nations  of  Europe  to  en- 
gage in  this  design  was  general,  some  writers  have  dignified  the 
abortive  result  with  the  title  of  the  Fourth  Crusade ;  and  numbered 
the  subsequent  expedition,  which  was  directed  against  the  Byzantine 
Empire,  as  the  Fifth  of  Nine.  But  the  more  usual,  which  seems 
also  the  more  convenient  division,  restricts  the  term  of  distinct  Cru- 
sades to  Seven,  or  at  most  Eight,~great  efforts,  which  were  either 
produced  by  some  signal  occasion,  such  as  the  loss  of  Edessa  or  Je- 
rusalem, or  else  productive  of  some  considerable  event. 


FRENCH.    GERMANS,    AND    ITALIANS.  287 


Henry  VI.  Ejnperor  of  Germany. 

confident  anticipations  among  the  Latins  in  the  East 
of  a  decisive  triumph  over  their  infidel  enemies.  But 
the  Mussulmans  both  of  Egypt  and  Syria,  forgetting 
their  civil  feuds  in  the  common  danger  of  their  re- 
ligion and  empire,  rallied  around  the  standard  of 
Saphadin;  and  though  the  combined  chivalry  of 
Germany  and  Palestine  gained  some  victories  in  the 
field,  these  successes  were  always  either  marred  by 
their  dissensions,  or  counterbalanced  by  the  elastic 
spirit  of  Turkish  hostility,  which  started  into  new  arid 
vigorous  action,  as  often  as  misconduct  or  exhaustion 
relaxed  the  efforts  of  the  Christians.  By  the  death 
of  the  emperor,  the  German  princes  and  prelates  were 
recalled  through  political  interests  to  Europe;  and  at 
their  departure  they  left  the  Latin  possessions  in 
Palestine  only  slightly  enlarged  by  their  aid.  The 


288  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

general  superiority,  however,  which  their  arms  had 
asserted  over  the  Mussulman  power  was  useful  in  sus- 
taining the  dignity  and  safety  of  the  Christian  state ; 
and  though  the  nominal  capital  of  the  kingdom  was 
still  unrecovered,  the  German  victories  had  given 
security  to  the  throne  of  Henry  of  Champagne,  whose 
real  sovereignty  extended  over  great  part  of  the  sea- 
coast  of  Syria.  To  these  considerable  fragments  of 
the  Latin  monarchy  of  Palestine.  Cyprus  was  soon 
after  added,  on  the  death  of  Henry,  by  the  union  of 
his  queen,  thus  widowed  for  the  third  time,  with 
Almeric  of  Lusignan,  the  successor  of  Guy  in  the  sove- 
reignty of  that  island;  and  on  the  solemnization  of 
this  marriage  at  Acre,  Almeric  and  Isabella  assumed, 
in  1197,  the  joint  title  of  King  and  Queen  of  Jeru- 
•salem  and  Cyprus.* 

The  exhortations  of  Pope  Celestin  III.  had  failed  to 
reanimate  the  religious  zeal  of  the  chivalry  of  France : 
but  a  fresh  impulse  was  given  to  their  fanaticism 
when  Innocent  III.,  three  years  afterward,  ascended 
the  papal  throne.  The  convenient  precedent  of  the 
Saladin  tithe  might  suggest  to  that  celebrated  Pontiff 
a  tempting  occasion  for  again  taxing  the  clergy  of 
Europe  under  the  pretext  of  a  new  Crusade ;  but  per- 
haps the  single  motive  of  filling  the  papal  coffers  by 

*  For  all  these  transactions  in  Palestine,  see  Bernardus  Thesaur 
p.  813-818.  Chron.  Sdavorum,  lib.  iv.  v.  vi.  (in  Freher,  Rerum 
Script.  German,  vol.  ii.)  Cont.  Will.  Tyr,  lib.  ii.  Abulfeda,  lib. 
iv  &c. 


FRENCH,   GERMANS,    AND    ITALIANS.         289 

this  disgraceful  expedient  lias  been  too  confidently 
attributed  to  Innocent,  in  whom  the  ambitious  desire 
of  extending  the  spiritual  and  temporal  dominion  of 
the  Holy  See  was  at  least  as  strong  as  any  mere  cu- 
pidity of  gold.  But  whatever  were  his  objects,  he 
entered  on  the  design  of  again  arming  Europe  against 
the  infidels  with  all  the  energy  which  distinguished 
his  character.  He  wrote  himself  to  the  sovereigns  of 
Christendom,  exhorting  them  severally  either  to  take 
the  cross  in  person,  or  at  least  to  contribute  their 
forces  and  treasures  to  the  sacred  enterprise;  and  his 
legates  were  despatched  throughout  the  kingdoms  of 
the  West  to  levy  on  all  ecclesiastical  bodies  the 
fortieth  part  of  their  revenues,  and  to  obtain  the 
pecuniary  subscription  and  personal  services  of  the 
laity  by  the  promises  of  indulgences  and  pardon  for 
their  sins. 

So  productive  were  these  efforts,  that  the  free 
offerings  of  the  princes  and  people  exceeded  the 
total  amount  imposed  on  the  clergy;  but  the  most 
powerful  auxiliary  of  the  papal  design  was  a  fanatical 
priest  named  Foulques,  of  Neuilly,  near  Paris,  who 
professed  to  atone  for  a  life  of  sin  by  dedicating  its 
remains  to  the  service  of  heaven;  and  who,  without 
the  rude  originality  of  the  Hermit  Peter,  or  the  learn- 
ing and  dignified  virtues  of  St.  Bernard,  yet  with  a 
success  little  inferior  to  that  of  either,  by  the  vehe- 
mence of  his  exhortations,  and  by  his  pretended  reve- 
lations of  the  divine  will,  now  kindled  the  flame 

10 


290  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

of   religious    enthusiasm    throughout    Flanders    and 
France.* 

When  the  fame  of  his  preaching  and  his  miracles 
had  already  prepared  the  public  mind  of  those  coun- 
tries for  the  sacred  enterprise,  the  martial  and  fana- 
tical zeal  of  the  French  nobility  was  roused  into  action 
by  the  example  which  was  offered  to  them  at  a  great 
tournament  in  Champagne.  There  Thibaut,  the 
youthful  count  of  that  province,  and  his  cousin  Louis, 
Earl  of  Blois,  both  of  them  nephews,  by  a  common 
relationship,  to  the  monarchs  of  France  and  England, 
and  the  former  brother  to  the  late  King  Henry  of 
Jerusalem,  resolved  to  exchange  the  martial  sports  for 
the  sterner  duties  of  chivalry,  and  solemnly  devoted 
themselves  and  their  fortunes  to  the  service  of  the  cross 
[1200.]  Their  spirit  was  enthusiastically  caught  bj 
the  assembled  knighthood ;  their  vows  were  embraced 
on  the  spot  by  Simon  de  Montfort,  Lord  of  Mante,  and 
a  numerous  band  of  the  noblest  chevaliers  of  France  ; 
and,  when  intelligence  of  the  inspiring  design  reached 

*  Foulques  did  not  live  to  contemplate  the  full  consequences  of 
his  preaching.  He  died  before  the  crusading  armament  sailed  from 
Venice.  Du  Cange  on  Villehardouin,  No.  xxxvii.  His  denun- 
ciations were  of  the  usual  kind,  and  such  as  custom  had  made 
familiar  to  the  ears  of  that  generation;  and  his  oratory  is  described 
by  contemporaries  as  plain,  but  impressive.  Addressing  Coeur  de 
Lion,  he  said,  "  You  have  three  daughters  to  dispose  of  in  marriage, 
Avarice,  Pride,  and  Luxury."  "  Well,"  replied  Richard,  "  I  give 
my  pride  to  the  Templars,  my  avarice  to  the  monks  of  Citeaux,  and 
my  luxury  to  the  bishops." — Rigord,  Hisotriographer  to  Philippe 
Auguste. 


FRENCH,   GERMANS,    AND    ITALIANS.        291 

the  court  of  Baldwin,  Count  of  Flanders,  brother-in- 
law  of  Thibaut,  that  prince,  with  a  great  body  of 
Flemish  knights,  hastened  to  enrol  himself  in  the  holy 
cause.  Meanwhile,  in  Italy  and  in  Germany,  the 
papal  exhortations  and  promises  of  spiritual  rewards 
had  not  been  without  their  desired  effect.  In  the 
former  country,  Boniface,  Marquis  of  Montferrat,  bro- 
ther of  the  murdered  Conrad  of  Tyre,  and  in  the  lat- 
ter, the  Bishop  of  Halberstadt,  both  seconded  by  great 
numbers  of  knightly  and  plebeian  warriors,  assumed 
the  cross ;  and  the  King  of  Hungary,  with  his  subjects, 
sealed  the  sincerity  of  their  faith  by  the  same  test.* 

The  French  nobles  did  not  suffer  the  ardour  of  their 
followers  to  cool  by  inaction.  To  forward  the  enter- 
prise and  arrange  its  details,  the  three  Counts  of 
Champagne,  Blois,  and  Flanders,  with  their  principal 
associates,  met  twice  in  deliberation  at  Soissons  and 
at  Compeigne ;  and  the  result  of  their  councils  was  a 
resolution  to  avoid  the  disasters  which  the  fatal  expe- 
rience of  former  Crusades  had  shown  were  the  inevi- 
table attendants  of  a  land  expedition  to  Palestine, 
and  to  imitate  the  maritime  passage  of  Philippe-Au- 
guste  and  Richard  Plantagenet.  But,  as  the  barons 
of  the  inland  province  of  Champagne  could  not  com- 
mand the  same  means  of  naval  transport  as  those 
sovereigns,  they  determined  upon  attempting  to  pur- 

*  Vita  Innocent.  III.  (apud  Muratori,  Script.  Rer.  Ital.  vol.  iii.) 
p.  506—526.  Histoire  de  la  Prise  de  Constantinople,  par  Geoffroj 
de  Villehardouin,  Ed.  du-  Cange,  paragraph  No.  i. 


292  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

chase  the  aid  of  one  of  the  maritime  republics  of 
Italy,  who,  throughout  the  Crusades,  had  been  wont 
to  hire  out  their  services  both  as  the  common  carriers 
and  allies  of  the  Western  pilgrims.  Among  these 
states,  Venice  had  already  attained  a  preponderance 
of  power  and  resources;  and  to  that  city,  with  full 
powers  to  negotiate  on  their  behalf,  the  French  barons 
despatched  six  chosen  deputies,  and  in  the  number 
Geoffrey  de  Villehardouin,  marshal  of  Champagne,  to 
whose  pen  or  dictation  we  are  indebted  for  a  simple 
and  expressive  narration  of  the  whole  Crusade. 

The  ducal  crown  of  Venice  was  at  this  time  worn 
by  Enrico  Dandolo,  who,  at  the  extraordinary  age  of 
ninety-three  years,  and  in  almost  total  blindness,  still 
preserved  the  vigorous  talents,  the  active  heroism, 
and  the  ambitious  or  patriotic  spirit  of  his  youth. 
He  received  the  noble  envoys  with  honour ;  and,  after 
the  purport  of  their  embassy  had  been  regularly  sub- 
mitted to  the  councils  of  the  state,  invited  them  to 
meet  the  assembled  citizens  in  the  Place  of  St.  Mark. 
There,  before  a  multitude  of  more  than  ten  thousand 
persons,  the  haughty  barons  of  France  threw  them- 
selves upon  their  knees  to  implore  the  assistance  of 
the  commercial  republicans  in  recovering  the  Sepul- 
chre of  Christ.  Their  tears*  and  eloquence  pre- 

*  These  doughty  champions  of  chivalry  were,  as  Gibbon  has  ob- 
served, by  habit  great  weepers.  Mult  plorant,  &  3.,  is  the  phrase  of 
Villehardouin  on  almost  every  occasion  of  excitement.  This  name, 
which  afterward  became  so  conspicuous  in  the  annals  of  the  East, 


«^r :  =set : 


294  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

vailei ;  the  price  of  the  desired  aid  had  been  left  by 
the  envoys  to  the  assessment  of  the  doge  and  his 
immediate  council ;  and  for  the  sum  of  eighty-five 
thousand  silver  marks — less  than  £200,000  of  our 
modern  English  money,  and  therefore  not  an  unrea- 
sonable demand — the  republic  engaged  to  transport 
four  thousand  five  hundred  knights,  nine  thousand 
esquires  and  men-at-arms,  with  their  horses  and  equip- 
ments, and  twenty  thousand  foot-soldiers,  to  any  part 
of  the  coasts  of  the  East  which  the  service  of  God 
might  require,  to  provision  them  for  nine  months,  and 
to  escort  and  aid  them  with  a  fleet  of  fifty  galleys ; 
but  only  on  condition  that  the  money  should  be  paid 
before  embarkation,  and  that  whatever  conquests 
might  be  made  should  be  equally  divided  between  the 
barons  and  the  Venetian  state.* 

On  the  return  of  the  envoys  to  France,  these  terms 
received  a  joyful  approval  from  their  associates;  but 
several  untoward  circumstances  arose  to  obstruct  the 
performance  of  the  treaty.  The  young  Count  of 
Champagne,  the  ardent  promoter  and  destined  chief 
of  the  enterprise,  was  already  stretched  on  a  death- 
took  its  rise  from  a  village,  or  castle,  in  the  diocese  of  Troye,  between 
Bar  and  Arcy.  The  elder  branch  of  the  family,  to  which  the  mar- 
shal belonged,  expired  in  1400,  and  the  younger,  which  acquired  the 
principality  of  Achaia,  merged  in  the  family  of  Savoy.  Michaud, 
ii.  46. 

*  Andreae  Danduli,  Chron.  Venet.  (in  Script.  Rer.  Ital.  vol.  xii.) 
p.  320—323,  in  which  the  original  treaty  is  given.  Villehardouin, 
tfo.  xiii.  xiv. 


FRENCH,    GERMANS,   AND    ITALIAI-TS.         .9-5 

bed  ;  and  on  his  decease  some  time  was  lost  before  the 
mutual  jealousy  of  the  French  barons,  which  prevented 
their  electing  one  of  their  own  body  to  succeed  him, 
was  reconciled  by  the  choice  of  a  foreign  leader  in  the 
person  of  the  Marquis  of  Montferrat.  Many  of  the 
nobles  and  their  'followers  had,  meanwhile,  in  incon- 
stancy or  impatience,  wholly  deserted  their  engage- 
ments, or  found  their  own  passage  to  Acre:  so  that 
when  at  length,  nearly  two  years  after  the  tourna- 
ment in  Champagne,  the  Marquis  Boniface  mustered 
the  French,  Italian,  and  Flemish  confederates  at 
Venice,  their  numbers  fell  short  of  expectation,  not- 
withstanding the  junction  of  some  German  crusaders; 
and  they  were  utterly  unable  to  subscribe  the  stipu- 
lated cost  of  the  enterprise.  [1202.]  Though  the 
Marquis  and  the  Counts  of  Blois  and  Flanders  made  a 
generous  sacrifice  of  all  their  valuables,  above  thirty 
thousand  marks  were  yet  wanting  to  complete  the 
full  payment;  and  as  the  republic,  with  true  mer- 
cantile caution,  refused  to  permit  the  sailing  of  the 
fleet  until  the  whole  amount  of  the  deficiency  should 
be  lodged  in  her  treasury,  the  enterprise  must  have 
been  abandoned,  if  the  Doge  had  not  suggested  an 
equivalent.  He  proposed  that,  upon  condition  of  the 
crusaders  assisting  in  the  reduction  of  the  strong  city 
of  Zara,  on  the  Dalmatian  coast,  which  had  revolted 
from  the  republic,  their  payment  of  the  remaining 
sum  should  be  postponed  until  the  conclusion  of  the 
Holy  War;  and  despite  of  his  years  and  infirmities, 


296  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

he  engaged,  on  their  assent,  himself  to  take  the  Cross, 
and  to  lead  the  naval  forces  of  his  republic.* 

The  confederate  barons  gladly  acceded  to  this  ex- 
pedient, when  another  obstacle  was  opposed  to  its 
adoption,  which  had  nearly  frustrated  the  whole  en- 
terprise :  the"  people  of  Zara  had  placed  themselves 
under  the  sovereignty  of  the  King  of  Hungary;  and 
the  pope,  through  his  legate,  positively  forbade  the 
crusaders  to  turn  their  arms  against  the  subjects  of  a 
prince  who  had  himself  taken  the  Cross.  But  the 
Venetians,  who  entertained  little  reverence  for  the 
authority  of  the  Holy  See,  succeeded  in  persuading 
their  more  scrupulous  allies  to  disregard  the  prohi- 
bition of  Innocent ;  the  desire  of  honourably  discharg- 
ing their  obligations  prevailed  with  the  French  barons 
over  their  fear  of  the  papal  displeasure;  and,  although 
the  Marquis  of  Montferrat,  their  leader,  abstained 
from  accompanying  them,  they  sailed  to  Zara  with 
their  followers  in  the  Venetian  fleet,  which  was  com- 
manded by  the  venerable  doge,  as  he  had  promised,  in 
person.  Zara  was  deemed  in  that  age  one  of  the 
strongest  cities  in  Europe :  but  the  inhabitants,  after 
a  siege  of  only  five  days,  were  terrified  or  compelled 
into  a  surrender;  and  though  their  lives  were  spared, 

*  Notwithstanding  the  expression  of  Villehardouin,  that  the  vene- 
rable Doge  had  lost  his  sight  by  a  wound,. it  maybe  doubted  whether 
he  was  totally  blind ;  for  the  statement  of  his  descendant  and  chroni- 
cler, much  more  probable  in  itself,  is  only  that  he  was  visti  debilit, 
Danduli,  Chron.  p.  322. 


FRENCH,   GERMANS,   AND    ITALIANS.      297 

the  city  was  pillaged  with  great  cruelty,  and  both  ita 
houses  and  defences  razed  to  the  ground.  In  his 
first  burst  of  indignation  at  their  disobedience,  Inno- 
cent excommunicated  both  the  crusaders  and  Vene- 
tians ;  and  when  the  French  barons  sent  a  deputation 
of  their  number  to  Rome  to  express  their  penitence, 
he  assured  them  of  pardon  for  their  sins,  only  upon 
condition  of  their  making  restoration  of  their  booty  to 
the  people  of  Zara,  and  withdrawing  from  all  alliance 
with  the  more  stubborn  republicans,  who  still  set  his 
spiritual  censures  at  defiance.  The  fanatic  De  Mont- 
fort,  alone,  whose  subsequent  share  in  the  Crusade 
against  the  Albigenses  has  given  a  horrible  celebrity 
to  his  name,  showed  full  obedience  to  the  papal  man- 
date by  wholly  abandoning  his  associates;  but  the 
rest  of  the  French  nobles  and  their  troops  continued 
to  winter  with  the  Venetians  at  Zara,  where,  after  its 
surrender,  the  Marquis  of  Montferrat  joined  them; 
and  it  was  during  this  season  of  repose  that  an  en- 
tirely new  destination  was  given  to  the  combined 
armament.* 


*  Danduli,    Chron.  ubi  suprd;    Vita  Innocent.  III.  p.  529-53L 
Villeliardouin,  No.  xx.  liv. 


298 


THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 


Street  in  Constantinople. 


SECTION  m. 


AFFAIRS  OF  THE  EASTERN  EMPIRE. 

explain  the  occasion  of  a  change 
of  purpose  in  the  crusaders,  which 
produced  one  of  the  most  singular 
and  memorable  enterprises  in  his- 
tory, it  is  now  necessary  to  revert 
to  the  state  of  the  Byzantine  em- 
pire; the  annals  of  which,  during  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, have  been  purposely  reserved  for  a  brief  and 


THE    EASTERN    EMPIRE.  299 

rapid  notice  in  this  place.  Our  retrospect  will  ascend 
to  the  reign  of  the  first  Alexius:  the  crisis  of  whose 
fortunes  was  involved  and  has  been  described  in  the 
transactions  of  the  earliest  Crusade.  Following 
closely  on  the  triumphant  career  of  the  Latins 
through  the  Lesser  Asia,  Alexius  richly  gathered  the 
fruits  of  victories,  which  they  were  impatient  to 
abandon  for  the  ulterior  objects  of  their  great  enter- 
prise; arid,  as  the  Turkish  forces  were  successively 
withdrawn  from  the  shores  of  the  Propontis  and 
.^Egean  sea  to  the  defence  of  the  interior,  the  emperor 
restored  to  the  Byzantine  dominion  the  whole  circuit 
of  the  sea-coast  from  Nice  to  Tarsus,  or  from  the 
Bosphorus  to  the  Syrian  gates.  Even  in  the  interior 
of  Asia  Minor,  the  Sultan  of  Nice,  after  the  loss  of 
that  capital,  had  been  compelled  to  remove  the  seat  of 
his  throne  from  thence  to  Iconiurn,  above  three  hun- 
dred miles  from  Constantinople;  and,  amid  the  ex- 
haustion of  the  Turkish  power  in  its  struggle  with 
the  crusading  invaders,  Alexius,  by  policy  and  arms, 
so  diligently  improved  his  advantage,  that,  before  his 
decease,  the  Greek  Empire,  which,  at  the  outset  of 
his  reign,  was  straitened  and  shaken  on  all  sides  by 
hostile  pressure,  and  seemed  to  rock  to  its  founda- 
tions, had  not  only  assumed  an  aspect  of  renovated 
strength,  but  expanded  with  offensive  force  against 
its  former  assailants.* 

*  Anna  Comnena,  Alexiad,  lib.  ix.-xiv. 


300  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

In  the  succeeding  reign  of  his  son  John,  termed  iu 
derision  the  handsome,  or  Calo  Johannes,  a  prince  more 
honourably  distinguished  both  for  his  pacific  virtues 
and  warlike  qualities,  [1118,]  internal  concord  and 
happiness  were  preserved  by  a  mild  and  vigorous 
administration ;  while  the  dignity  of  the  empire  was 
asserted,  and  its  security  increased,  by  twenty-five 
years  of  victorious  contest  with  the  Turks.  From 
the  Latin  princes  of  Syria,  the  Greek  emperor  won 
equal  respect  by  the  powerful  assistance  which,  in  the 
interval  between  the  first  and  second  Crusades,  he 
rendered  them  in  repelling  the  infidels,  and  by  the 
vigour  with  which  he  obliged  Raymond,  the  reigning 
Prince  of  Antioch,  to  do  homage  to  him  for  his  pos- 
sessions. Manuel,  the  second  surviving  son  of  John, 
who  was  preferred  in  the  succession  to  an  elder  bro- 
ther both  by  parental  and  popular  favour,  inherited 
his  father's  martial  spirit  with  his  throne ;  but  did  not 
emulate  the  worth  of  his  private  life  and  civil  govern- 
ment. [1143.]  During  an  active  reign  of  thirty- 
seven  years,  the  ambition  of  Manuel,  rather  than  the 
necessity  of  his  position,  involved  his  empire  in  con- 
tinual wars,  not  only  with  the  Turks  and  Hungarians, 
its  natural  enemies  on  the  Asiatic  and  European  fron- 
tiers, but  also  with  the  ancient  foes  of  his  house,  the 
Normans  of  the  two  Sicilies.  In  the  hostilities,  in- 
deed, which  kindled  anew  the  quarrel  of  the  pre- 
ceding century,  Manuel  was  not  the  first  aggressor. 
Reviving  the  magnificent  design  of  Robert  Guiscard 


THE    EASTERN    EMPIRE.  301 

for  the  subjugation  of  the  Byzantine  empire,  Roger, 
King  of  Sicily,  upon  pretext  of  some  slight  shown 
to  his  ambassadors  at  Constantinople,  despatched  a 
great  armament  into  the  Ionian  and  jEgean  seas ; 
and  the  Normans,  disembarking  from  their  ships, 
reduced  Corfu  and  other  islands,  and  overran  the 
continent  of  Greece.  Manuel  was  at  the  time  absent 
from  his  capital ;  but  his  return  and  revengeful 
activity  soon  terminated  the  triumph  of  the  invaders. 
With  the  powerful  co-operation  of  the  Venetians, 
his  navy  outnumbered  that  of  the  Normans,  and 
swept  the  seas  of  their  galleys ;  his  troops,  which  he 
led  in  person,  overpowered  the  garrisons  which  they 
had  left  in  Greece ;  and  a  single  campaign  sufficed  to 
clear  the  empire  of  its  audacious  assailants.  It  was 
then  that  the  ambitious  hopes  of  Manuel  rose  with 
his  success;  and  the  glorious  issue  of  a  just  a,nd  de- 
fensive war  suggested  dreams  of  aggrandizement, 
which  embraced  the  sovereignty  of  Italy,  and  the 
reunion  on  his  brows  of  the  imperial  crowns  of  the 
East  and  West.* 

With  the  plea  of  punishing  the  Norman  invaders 
of  his  states,  a  Byzantine  army,  under  the  command 
of  Palseologus,  a  leader  of  noble  birth  and  approved 
valour,  was  landed  upon  the  shores  of  southern  Italy; 
and  favoured  by  the  declining  health  and  death  of 


*  Johannis  Cinnami  Historia,  lib.  ii.  iii.     Nicetaa  Choniates,  in 
Manuel  Comnen.  lib.  i.  iii.  ad.  c.  6.     (Both  in  Scriptor  Byzant?) 


302  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

the  Sicilian  king,  and  by  the  affection  of  the  people 
for  the  ancient  community  of  "language  and  faith 
which  had  bound  them  to  the  Greek  empire,  the 
whole  of  Apulia  and  Calabria  was  rapidly  reannexed 
to  the  Byzantine  dominion.  From  this  epoch, 
throughout  the  subsequent  contests  between  the 
Western  emperor,  Frederic  Barbarossa,  on  the  one 
side,  and  the  papacy  and  Lombard  republics  on  the 
other,  the  intrigues,  the  blandishments,  and  the  gold 
of  Manuel,  were  unsparingly  employed  to  extend  his 
influence  in  Italy,  and  to  promote  his  visionary  scheme 
of  wresting  the  sovereignty  of  the  whole  Peninsula 
from  the  German  usurper  of  the  Roman  title.  To 
the  pope  he  threw  out  the  lure  of  terminating  the 
schism  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  churches ;  to  the 
Lombard  cities  he  was  prodigal  both  of  money  and 
promises;  but  the  intrinsic  weakness  of  the  Greek 
empire  was  unequal  to  the  prosecution  of  his  ambi- 
tious design ;  its  weight  was  severely  felt  in  the 
balance  of  Italian  politics ;  and  when  the  pope  and 
the  Lombard  republics  had  terminated  their  great 
struggle  with  Barbarossa,  the  subsidies  and  the  nego- 
tiations of  Manuel  were  alike  disregarded.  In  South- 
ern Italy  fortune  was  equally  capricious  to  the  Eastern 
empire ;  the  death  of  his  brave  lieutenant  Palseologus 
was  followed  by  the  loss  of  his"  transient  conquests ; 
and,  in  a  truce  concluded  with  William  the  Bad,  the 
successor  of  Roger  on  the  Sicilian  throne,  in  which 
that  prince  acknowledged  himself  the  vassal  of  the 


THE    EASTERN    EMPIRE.  303 

Byzantine  throne,  the  dignity  and  pretensions  of 
Manuel  were  only  saved  by  his  abandonment  of  the 
Italian  soil.  [1156.]  In  other  quarters  the  warlike 
reign  of  Manuel  was  signalized  by  victories  both  over 
the  Hungarians  and  Turks,  though  in  his  last  years 
its  splendour  was  clouded  by  a  severe  defeat  which  he 
sustained  from  the  infidels  in  the  Pisidian  mountains. 
To  his  own  subjects,  even  his  more  successful  wars 
were  productive  of  heavy  burdens;  his  private  life 
was  licentious,  and  his  political  character  was  stained, 
as  we  have  seen,  with  the  reproach  of  pretended 
friendship  and  treacherous  hostility  to  the  Latins  in 
the  Second  Crusade.* 

With  the  death  of  Manuel  ended  the  greatness  of 
the  Comnenian  race.  His  infant  son  and  successor, 
Alexius  II.,  was  oppressed  by  a  perfidious  guardian 
and  daring  usurper  of  his  own  blood,  Andronicus, 
himself  a  grandson  of  the  first  Alexius,  who,  after  de- 
posing and  murdering  his  imperial  ward,  himself  ter- 
minated a  tyrannical  and  bloody  reign  of  less  than 
three  years  by  an  ignominious  and  cruel  death.  The 
popular  insurrection  in  which  he  fell  was  headed  by 
Isaac  Angelus,  another  member,  by  descent  in  the 
female  line,  of  the  Comnenian  family.  The  leader  or 
tool  of  the  insurgents  was  raised  to  the  throne,  and 
under  his  feeble  reign  of  ten  years,  the  empire 
crumbled  into  ruir,  A  revolt  of  the  Bulgarians  was 

*Cinnamus,  lib.  iv>-vi.     Nieetas,  adfn.  Manud, 


304 


THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 


Isaac  Angelus. 

provoked  by  his  tyranny  in  seizing  their  flocks  and 
herds  to  supply  the  wasteful  pomp  of  his  nuptials : 
and  his  tame  acquiescence  in  their  assertion  of  inde- 
pendence severed  their  country  from  the  Byzantine 
crown,  after  a  possession  of  nearly  two  centuries,  and 
established  the  second  kingdom  of  Bulgaria  under  a 
race  of  their  ancient  princes.  The  inglorious  and 
indolent  reign  of  Isaac  was  frequently,  and  perhaps 
justly,  threatened  by  abortive  conspiracies;  but  his 
Worst  and  successful  enemy  was  his  own  ungrateful 


THE    EASTERN    EMPIRE.  305 

brother  Alexius,  whom  he  had  redeemed  from  a  Turk- 
ish prison,  and  who  repaid  the  obligation  by  sur- 
prising his  security,  depriving  him  of  his  eyes,  con- 
signing him  to  a  dungeon,  and  seating  himself  on  his 
throne.  The  son  of  the  deposed  prince,  who  was 
named  also  Alexius,  a  boy  only  twelve  years  of  age, 
was  spared  by  the  pity  or  contempt  of  his  uncle ;  and 
he  had  subsequently  contrived  to  escape  into  Italy, 
when  the  news  of  the  assembly  of  a  great  crusading 
armament  at  Venice,  inspired  his  youthful  hopes  that 
its  leaders  might  be  induced,  by  adequate  offers,  to 
defer  the  ultimate  object  of  their  enterprise  for  a 
season,  and  to  direct  their  powerful  arms  to  the  re- 
storation *of  his  father.  The  entreaties  of  the  young 
prince  for  their  aid  were  supported  at  Venice  by  am- 
bassadors from  his  protector,  the  Duke  of  Swabia, 
who  had  married  his  sister:  but  it  was  at  Zara,  dur- 
ing the  inaction  of  winter,  that  the  friends  of  Alexius 
were  permitted  more  successfully  to  negotiate  a  treaty 
with  the  Latin  barons  and  Venetian  republic,  which 
was  eventually  to  deliver  the  imperial  inheritance  of 
his  house  into  the  detested  hands  of  foreign  and  bar- 
barous spoilers.* 

To  induce  the  Venetians  to  accept  the  overtures  of 
the  young  Greek  prince,  there  were  not  wanting 
many  motives  both  of  passion  and  policy.  The 


*  Nicetas,  in  Adron.  Comnen.,  in  Isaac  Angel.,  in  Alex.  Angel.,  ad 
lib  in.  &c. 

20 


306  THE    FOURTH     CRUSADE. 

alliance  between  their  state  and  the  Emperor  Manuel 
Comnenus  in  the  last  age,  had  been  converted,  by  hia 
protection  of  Ancona,  the  commercial  rival  of  the  re- 
public, into  deadly  enmity  ;  in  revenge  for  a  general 
confiscation  of  the  property  of  the  Venetians  in  his 
ports,  to  which  Manuel  was  provoked  by  their  inso- 
lence, their  fleets  had  ravaged  the  Byzantine  islands 
and  coasts;  and  though  the  emperor,  by  a  final  sub- 
mission to  their  demands,  had  appeased  the  haughty 
republic,  the  hatred  of  the  people  of  Constantinople, 
during  the  license  of  subsequent  revolutions,  had  re- 
peatedly exposed  the  Venetian  merchants  in  that 
capital  to  spoliation  and  massacre.*  The  arms  of  the 
republic,  or  the  dread  of  her  vengeance,  generally, 
indeed,  obtained  indemnification  for  these  outrages; 
but  repeated  broils  cherished  mutual  national  anti- 
pathy; and  when  the  Pisans  availed  themselves  of 
the  temper  of  the  Greeks  to  supplant  the  Venetians 
in  their  commercial  relations  with  the  empire,  the  ex- 
asperation of  the  latter  people  had  reached  its  height. 
By  assisting  young  Alexius,  their  republic  would 
therefore  both  revenge  her  wrongs  and  regain  her 
commercial  advantages  in  the  East.  The  politic 
Dandolo  was  not  slow  to  anticipate  the  benefits 
which  would  accrue  to  his  country  from  such  an 
alliance;  and  he  eagerly  employed  all  his  influence 


*  Cinnamus,  lib.  vi.  c.  10.     Nicetas,  in  ManueC.  lib.  ii.  c.  *5;   tn 
AlfX.  Man.  Filio,  c.  11  ;  in  Isaac,  lib.  ii.  c.  10. 


THE    EASTERN    EMPIRE.  307 

with  the  confederate  barons  to  engage  them  in  the 
design.* 

For  its  adoption  even  as  a  means  of  advancing  the 
ultimate  object  of  the  Crusade,  some  plausible  argu- 
ments might  be  adduced.  As  the  possession  of  Egypt 
was  supposed  to  form  the  principal  support  of  the 
Turkish  arms  in  Palestine,  the  original  design  of  the 
crusaders  had  been  to  attack  the  infidels  at  that 
source  of  their  power.  But  it  was  now  contended  by 
the  Venetians,  that  any  loss  of  time  in  deferring  the 
projected  invasion  of  Egypt  would  be  richly  repaid  to 
the  profit  of  the  Crusade,  by  the  advantages  likely  to 
arise  from  the  command  of  the  Byzantine  resources, 
which  young  Alexius  offered  as  the  price  of  his 
father's  restoration.  The  proposals,  indeed,  of  the 
imperial  exile,  were  of  the  most  tempting  nature;  for 
he  engaged  not  only  to  pay  two  hundred  thousand 
marks  among  the  crusaders  as  soon  as  his  parent 
should  be  re-established  on  the'  throne;  but  also  to 
put  an  end  to  the  schism  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
churches  by  submitting  his  empire  to  the  spiritual 
dominion  of  the  Roman  See ;  and  either  to  combine 
personally  with  the  crusaders,  at  the  head  of  the 
Byzantine  forces,  in  the  subsequent  expedition  against 
Egypt,  or  in  default  of  his  own  presence,  to  send  ten 
thousand  men  at  his  charge  for  one  year,  and  to 

*  Nicetas,  in  Alex.  lib.  iii.  c.  '9,  expressly  accuses  the  Doge  and 
Venetians  as  the  instigators  of  the  French  crusaders. 


308  THE    FOURTH     CRUSADE. 

maintain  five  hundred  knights  during  his  life  for  the 
defence  of  Palestine.*  These  promised  benefits  to 
the  cause  of  the  church  and  the  Crusade  might  at  first 
have  a  powerful  influence  in  winning  assent  even 
among  the  more  devout  leaders  of  the  war;  but  it 
must  be  doubted  whether  the  motives  of  their  subse- 
quent conduct  were  equally  pure  and  disinterested; 
and  since  the  diversion  of  their  arms  against  Zara  had 
familiarized  the  minds  of  the  crusading  host  to  the 
postponement  of  their  vows,  it  may  be  suspected  that 
the  successful  siege  and  sack  of  that  city  had  but 
awakened  their  appetite  for  a  more  splendid  achieve- 
ment and  a  richer  booty. 

The  influence  of  such  feelings  is  detected  in  their 
second  and  more  deliberate  contempt  of  the  prohi- 
bition, which  Innocent  III.  now  fulminated  against 
their  design.  The  Byzantine  usurper,  anticipating 
the  proposal  of  young  Alexius,  had,  by  a  solemn  em- 
bassy to  Rome,  offered  to  place  the  religious  affairs  of 
his  empire  under  the  government  of  the  Latin  papacy, 
and  requested  the  presence  of  a  legate  from  Rome; 
and  the  ambitious  Innocent,  hoping  thus  t6  secure 
the  submission  of  the -Greek  Church,  as  the  price 
of  keeping  the  reigning  tyrant  on  the  Byzantine 
throne,  promised  him  protection  against  his  ene- 
mies. 

The    pontiff",   therefore,    proceeded     positively    to 

*  Villehardouin,  No.  xlvi.  Ckron.  Danduli,  lib.  x.  c.  3. 


THE    EASTERN    EMPIRE.  309 

interdict  the  crusaders  from  espousing  the  cause 
of  the  imperial  exile,  or  arrogating  to  themselves 
any  authority  for  the  redress  of  wrongs  among 
Christians,  or  the  suppression  of  schism,  for 
which  it  was  the  province  of  the  Holy  See  alone 
to  provide. 

But,  by  the  Venetians,  the  commands  of  the  pope 
were  immediately  treated  with  such  open  disregard, 
that  the  cardinal  legates,  whom  he  had  despatched* 
to  Zara  to  enforce  them,  hopelessly  quitted  the  place 
and  sailed  direct  for  Palestine;  and  their  example 
was  followed  by  a  number  of  barons  and  other 
crusaders,  including  many  most  renowned  for  their 
devout  and  warlike  spirit,  who  conscientiously 
dreaded  to  incur  the  papal  censures,  by  turning 
their  arms  against  the  Eastern  Empire;  while  not  a 
few  disguised,  under  the  same  pretext,  their  secret 
dread  to  engage  in  an  enterprise  so  perilous  and  dis- 
proportioned  to  the  assembled  force  of  the  con- 
federates. 

Since,  indeed,  submission  to  the  papal  authority 
was  identified  with  every  pious  sentiment  of  the 
age,  it  is  impossible  not  to  conclude  that,  in  the 
ininds  of  the  remaining  leaders  and  soldiery,  the 
temptations  of  glorious  or  gainful  adventure  had 
triumphed  over  religious  considerations;  and  chiefly 
through  the  personal  persuasions,  as  it  is  said,  of  the 
Venetian  Doge,  the  proposals  of  young  Alexius,  de- 
spite of  the  impending  thunders  of  the  Vatican,  were 


310 


THE    FOURTH     CRUSADE. 


finally  accepted  by  the  marquis  of  Montferrat,  the 
Counts  of  Flanders,  Blois,  and  St.  Paul,  with  eight 
other  great  French  barons,  and  the  majority  of  their 
followers.* 

*  Villehardouin,    No.  xlv.  xlvii.  lii.  Vita   Innocent  III.   p.  533 
Ejusdem  Epistolse,  No.  Ixvii  &c. 


EXPEDITION    AGAIXST    CO  X  ST  A  X  TI  XOPLE.       311 


Dandolo,  Duge  of  Venice. 

SECTION  m. 

EXPEDITION  AGAINST  CONSTANTINOPLE. 

HOWEVER  apparently  inadequate  foi 
the  conquest  of  an  ancient  empire,  the 
armament  wherewith  the  Doge  of 
Venice  and  the  confederate  barons 
now  sailed  for  Constantinople,  was  of 
its  kind  the  most  complete  and  formidable  which  the 
world  had  yet  witnessed.  The  fleet  was  composed  of 
fifty  great  galleys  of  war,  one  hundred  and  twenty 
flat-bottomed  horse-transports,  called  palanders  or 


312  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

huissiers*  two  hundred  and  forty  vessels  filled  with 
troops  and  warlike  engines,  and  seventy  store-ships 
laden  with  provisions.  On  board  this  navy  of  nearly 
five  hundred  sail — of  which  the  enumeration  conveys 
BO  magnificent  an  idea  of  the  wealth  and  po\Ver  of  the 
great  republic — there  were  embarked,  under  the  con- 
federate barons  of  the  Crusade,  six  thousand  cavalry, 
composed  of  two  thousand  knights  with  their  esquires 
and  sergeants,  or  mounted  attendants,  and  ten  thou- 
sand foot:  besides  the  Venetian  sea  and  land  forces, 
of  which  the  numbers  might  be  loosely  estimated  at 
twenty  thousand  more.f  Although  the  Byzantine 
usurper  was  early  apprized  of  the  destination  and 
force  of  this  hostile  armament,  he  made  not  a  single 
effort  to  oppose  its  course;  the  crusaders  were  per- 
mitted successively,  during  a  tardy  navigation,  to  re- 
fresh themselves  and  their  horses,  and  to  replenish 
their  provisions  on  the  coasts  and  islands  of  Greece; 
and  they  finally  approached  the  port  of  Constanti- 


*  The  origin  of  the  former  term  for  such  a  description  of  naval 
transport  has  been  lost ;  the  latter  is  derived  from  the  huis,  or  door 
in  the  side  of  the  vessel,  which  was  let  down  as  a  drawbridge  for  the 
purpose  of  shipping  and  landing  the  horses.  Du  Cange,  on  Ville- 
hardouin,  No.  xiv. 

j"  According  to  Sanuto,  Vite  de  Duchi  de  Venezia,  (in  Script.  Rer. 
Ital.  vol.  xxii.)  p.  528,  the  land  forces  of  the  republic  in  the  expedi- 
tion were  four  hundred  and  fifty  cavalry  and  eight  thousand  foot 
But  after  the  first  siege  of  Constantinople,  Villehardouin  (No.  clii.) 
estimates  the  total  combined  army  of  French  and  Venetians  at  onlj 
twenty  thousand  men. 


EXPEDITION   AGAINST    CONSTANTINOPLE.     313 

nople  itself  without  having  encountered  an  enemy. 
The  Byzantine  navy,  which,  it  is  said,  had  but  lately 
numbered  sixteen  hundred  vessels  of  war,  might  have 
sufficed  to  harass,  and  even  to  destroy,  on  its  passage, 
an  armament,  so  encumbered  with  horses  and  stores: 
but  the  Greek  admiral,  Michael  Struphnos,  brother-in- 
law  of  the  usurper,  had,  in  the  baseness  of  his  avarice, 
broken  up  the  hulls  of  the  shipping,  that  he  might 
sell,  for  his  private  profit,  the  masts,  rigging,  and  iron 
work ;  and  the  port  of  Constantinople  now  contained 
only  twenty  galleys.  The  shores  of  the  Propontia 
might  have  furnished  abundant  timber  for  the  con- 
struction of  a  new  navy :  but  the  eunuchs  of  the  palace, 
to  whom  the  charge  of  the  imperial  forests  was  in- 
trusted for  the  purpose  of  the  chase,  would  not  suffer 
a  tree  to  be  felled  for  the  public  defence.  To  this  and 
every  other  object  of  patriotism,  the  whole  nation  in- 
deed was  alike  insensible :  for  the  unwarlike  and  de- 
generate Greeks,  as  a  race  in  whom  the  despotism  of 
centuries  had  extinguished  every  spark  of  generous 
shame,  beheld  in  cowering  apathy  the  approach  of  a 
detested  enemy;  and  without  favouring  the  cause  of 
the  younger  Alexius,  the  people  both  of  the  capital 
and  provinces  were  equally  indifferent  to  the  danger 
of  the  tyrant  who  filled  their  throne.* 

If  that  usurper  himself,  or  his  adherents,  had  been 


*  Villehardouin.     No.  Ivi.  Ivii.     Rhamnusius,  De  Bello  Constanti- 
nopoHtanOj  &c.  lib.  i.  p.  33.     Nicetas,  (in  Alexio),  lib.  iii.  c.  9. 


314  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

capable  of  exerting  even  the  passive  courage  of  a  de- 
fence,^the  natural  strength  and  resources  of  the  capital 
might  have  defied  the  efforts  of  assailants,  whom  the 
able-bodied  inhabitants  outnumbered  at  the  lowest 
estimate  as  ten  tp  one.  When  the  Venetian  navy 
arrived  before  the  walls  of  Constantinople,  and  the 
gorgeous  city,  which  the  admiration  of  the  crusaders 
deemed  well  worthy  of  being  the  mistress  and  queen 
of  the  world,  burst  in  all  her  magnitude  and  splendour 
upon  their  astonished  gaze,  there  was  no  heart  so 
stout,  is  the  simple  and  emphatic  confession  of  the 
noble  companion  and  chronicler  of  the  adventure,  but 
recoiled  with  dread  at  the  spectacle  of  her  massive 
ramparts  and  gigantic  towers;  for  never  surely  had  so 
great  an  enterprise  been  essayed.*  But  with  the  awe 
which  the  bravest  might  not  feel  ashamed  to  confess, 
was  not  the  less  mingled  a  magnanimous  spirit  which 
rose  with  the  danger;  and  each  warrior,  looking  upon 
his  arms,  reflected  with  unshaken  resolution  that  the 
hour  was  at  hand  in  which  these  must  serve  the  need, 
and  would  suffice  to  insure  the  event,  of  glorious 
achievement.  As  a  strong  wind  swept  the  armament 
past  the  walls  of  the  majestic  capital  toward  the  op- 
posite shore,  the  fleet  was  there  brought  to  anchor; 

*  Et  sachiez  que  line  ot  si  hardi cuite  cceur  nefremist,  et  ce  mefut 
mcrveil,  car  oneques  si  grande  affaire  ne  fat  enterpris — (and  know 
that  no  one  was  so  bold  that  his  heart  did  not  tremble;  and  no 
wonder,  for  never  was  so  great  an  enterprise  undertaken.)  Villehar- 
douin,  No.  Ixvi. 


EXPEDITION   AGAINST   CONSTANTINOPLE.     315 

and  the  chivalry  disembarking,  took  possession  of  the 
Asiatic  suburb  of  Chrysopolis,  the  modern  Scutari, 
and  during  nine  days  reposed  in  an  imperial  palace 
and  gardens.  This  interval  of  inaction  was  marked 
by  some  negotiations,  in  which  the  Byzantine  usurper 
offered  to  expedite  their  march  through  Asia  Minor 
against  the  infidels,  but  menaced  them  with  de- 
struction if  their  purpose  was  hostile  to  his  state ; 
while  the  Doge  and  barons  sternly  replied,  that  they 
had  entered  the  empire  in  the  cause  of  Heaven  to 
avenge  the  wrongs  which  he  had  committed,  and 
boldly  admonished  him  that  if  he  hoped  for  mercy  he 
must  descend  from  the  throne  which  he  had  unjustly 
seized.* 

After  this  declaration,  they  prepared  to  cross  the 
Bosphorus  to  the  European  shore, — the  whole  body 
of  the  chivalry  being  divided  into  six  corps  or  battles, 
two  composed  of  Flemish  knights  with  their  attendant 
archers  under  Count  Baldwin  and  his  brother,  three 
of  French  crusaders  led  respectively  by  the  Counts  of 
Blois  and  St.  Paul,  and  the  Lord  of  Montmorency,  and 
the  sixth  or  reserve  of  Italians  and  Germans  under 
the  marquis  of  Montferrat.  The  knights  and  ser- 
geants embarked  in  the  palanders,  with  their  horses 
ready  saddled  and  caparisoned;  the  Venetian  galleys 
took  them  in  tow;  and,  in  this  order,  they  stood 
across  the  strait  toward  the  European  suburb  of 


*  Villehardouin,  No.  Iviii.-lxxxi. 


316  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

Galata,  which  commands  the  entrance  of  the  port 
The  Greek  cavalry  were  drawn  out  on  the  beach  ir 
far  superior  force  to  oppose  their  landing:  but  when 
the  knights,  as  soon  as  the  water  reached  only  to 
their  girdle,  leaped  from  the  vessels,  lance  in  hand,  the 
enemy  immediately  fled ;  and  the  horses  being 
brought  on  shore,  the  cavaliers  mounted,  pursued  the 
flying  squadrons,  and  captured  the  imperial  camp 
without  striking  a  blow.  On  the  following  morning, 
after  a  faint  sally  by  the  Greeks,  the  assailants  en- 
tered the  town  of  Galata  with  the  fugitives;  the  chain 
which  from  thence  secured  the  mouth  of  the  harbour 
was  broken ;  and  the  whole  Venetian  fleet  entering 
the  port  of  Constantinople  in  triumph,  the  remains  of 
the  imperial  navy  either  fell  into  their  hands,  or  were 
driven  on  shore  and  burned.* 

Though  the  port  was  thus  captured,  the  gigantic 
works,  by  which  the  city  itself  was  completely  en- 
closed and  separated  from  the  suburbs,  might  still  bid 
defiance  to  the  efforts  of  the  crusaders:  but  their 
courage  and  confidence  were  unbounded.  Though 
their  numbers  were  insufficient  to  observe  more  than 
a  single  front  of  the  walls,  they  determined  to  com- 
mence a  regular  siege;  and  this  magnanimous  reso- 
lution presents  the  singular  and  amazing  example  of 
the  investment  of  the  largest  and  strongest  capital  in 
the  world  by  a  few  thousand  men.  The  perils  and 

*  Villehardouin,  No.  Ixxxii.  Nicetas,  (in  Alexio,}  lib.  Hi.  c.  10. 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  CONSTANTINOPLE.      317 

the  hardihood  of  this  extraordinary  enterprise  were 
enhanced  by  the  privations  under  which  it  was  prose 
cuted.  Of  flour  and  salt  provisions,  the  confederates 
had  a  supply  but  for  three  weeks  left;  clouds  of  Greek 
cavalry  confined  their  few  foragers  to  the  camp;  and 
their  only  fresh  meat  was  obtained  by  the  slaughter 
of  their  own  horses.  Delay  was  therefore  far  more  to 
be  dreaded  than  xthe  resistance  of  the  enemy ;  and  the 
preparatory  operations  of  the  siege  were  urged  with 
superhuman  exertions.  The  possession  of  the  har- 
bour determined  the  point  of  attack ;  and  against  the 
walls  on  that  side  two  hundred  and  fifty  great  pro- 
jectile and  battering  engines  were  planted.  When 
by  incredible  labour  the  ditch  had  been  filled  up,  and 
some  impression  made  upon  the  defences,  the  French 
and  Venetians  agreed  to  attempt  a  simultaneous 
assault :  the  former  from  their  approaches  against  the 
land  faces;  the  latter  from  their  galleys  upon  the 
fronts  which  overlooked  the  port.  Standing  upon 
the  raised  deck  of  his  vessel,  with  the  gonfalon,  or 
great  banner  of  St.  Mark,  floating  over  his  head,  the 
venerable  Doge  himself  led  the  naval  attack;  and 
such  was  the  ardour  excited  by  his  presence,  his 
voice,  and  his  example,  that  the  line  of  galleys  was 
boldly  rowed  to  the  beach  under  the  walls;  by 
ladders  from  the  foot  of  the  ramparts,  and  by  draw- 
bridges let  down  upon  their  battlements  from  the 
masts  of  the  loftier  vessels,  the  defences  were  sur- 
mounted ;  and  the  banner  of  the  republic  was  planted 


318  THE    TOURTH     CRUSADE. 

on  one  of  the  twenty-five  towers  which  were  earned 
by  the  assailants. 

But  meanwhile  the  attack  on  the  land  side  had 
oeen  less  successful;  every  gallant  effort  of  the 
French  chivalry  to  scale  the  walls  through  the  imper- 
fect breaches  had  been  repulsed  by  the  assistance  of 
some  Pisan  colonists  and  the  valour  of  the  Varangian, 
or  Anglo-Saxon  and  Danish  guards,  ever  the  firmest 
support  of  the  Byzantine  thrctae;*  and  the  numerous 
cavalry  of  the  Greeks,  pouring  from  the  gates, 
threatened  to  surround  and  overwhelm  the  scanty 
array  of  the  exhausted  crusaders.  The  Doge  learn- 
ing their  danger,  after  setting  fire  to  the  quarter  of 
the  city  which  he  had  entered,  and  which  was  thus 
reduced  to  ashes,  drew  off  his  triumphant  forces  to 
the  succour  of  his  fainting  allies;  and  the  pusillani- 
mous Greeks,  without  daring  a  closer  or  prolonged 
encounter,  disgracefully  retired  within  the  shelter  of 
their  walls.  The  confederates  passed  the  succeeding 
night  in  eager  rather  than  anxious  suspense :  but  such 

*  On  the  subject  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  emigrations  which  filled  the 
ranks  of  the  Varangian  guards  of  the  Byzantine  throne,  there  is  some 
difference  of  opinion.  Du  Cange,  indeed,  (Notes  on  Villehardouin, 
No.  Ixxxix.  &c.,)  labours  to  prove  that  these  Varangians  came  from 
ihe  northern  continent  of  Europe  only  :  but  the  words  of  Villehar- 
douin are  explicit,  Anglois  et  Danois.  It  is  not  probable  that  a 
French  knight  could  have  confounded  their  race ;  and  his  statement 
is  in  agreement  with  the  fact,  that  impatience  of  the  Norman  tyranny 
had,  ever  since  the  epoch  of  the  Conquest,  driven  multitudes  of  the 
bolder  spirits  among  the  oppressed  English  to  seek  a  more  honourable 
existence  in  foreign  countries. 


EXPEDITION   AGAINST   CONSTANTINOPLE.     319 

Was  the  terror  with  which  the  usurper  Alexius  was 
seized  at  the  balanced  success  of  the  conflict,  that, 
under  cover  of  the  darkness,  he  basely  fled  from  his 
capital  with  a  part  of  the  imperial  treasures.  On  the 
discovery  of  his  absence,  the  trembling  nobles  of  the 
palace  drew  his  blind  and  captive  brother  Isaac  from 
the  dungeon  to  the  throne;  and,,  when  morning 
dawned,  the  leaders  of  the  crusaders  were  astonished 
by  an  embassy  from  the  restored  emperor,  announcing 
the  revolution,  desiring  the  presence  of  his  son,  and 
inviting  them  also  to  receive  his  grateful  acknow- 
ledgments.* 

The  first  proceeding  of  the  confederates,  on  the  re- 
ceipt of  this  message,  was  to  depute  two  barons  and 
two  Venetians  to  wait  upon  the  emperor  with  their 
felicitations,  and  with  a  less  welcome  demand  for  the 
fulfilment  of  the  engagements  which  his  son  had  con- 
tracted in  his  name.  While  he  admitted  that  their 
services  were  entitled  to  the  highest  recompense 
which  was  his  to  bestow,  Isaac  heard  with  consterna- 
tion the  extent  of  the  conditions  which  he  was  re- 
quired to  ratify:  the  payment  of  two  hundred  thou- 
sand marks  of  silver,  the  employment  of  the  imperial 
forces  in  the  service  of  the  Crusade,  and  the  sub- 
mission of  the  Greek  Church  to  the  spiritual  authority 
of  the  pope.  But  the  immediate  subscription  of  the 

*  Villehardouin,  No.  Ixxxii.-xcix.  Danduli,  Chron.  p.  321,  322. 
Nicetas,  (in  Alexio),  lib.  iii.  ad  Jin.  Vitse  Innocent.  III.  c.  91,  p 
533,  534. 


320  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE.  . 

emperor  to  these  onerous  terms  was  peremptorily 
insisted  upon,  and,  however  reluctantly,  obtained. 
On  the  return  of  the  envoys  to  the  camp,  young 
Alexius  was  permitted  to  make  his  triumphant  entry 
into  the  city,  attended  by  the  Latin  chiefs;  and  the 
joint  coronation  of  the  aged  emperor  and  his  son, 
which  was  joyfully  celebrated,  seemed  to  announce  a 
peaceful  conclusion  to  the  recent  struggle.  This  fal- 
lacious promise  of  concord  between  two  nations  so 
mutually  obnoxious  as  the  Latins  and  Greeks,  was  of 
short  duration.  To  satisfy  the  rapacious  demands  of 
their  deliverers,  the  emperors,  in  the  low  state  of  the 
Byzantine  treasury,  were  compelled  to  make  many 
grievous  exactions  from  their  subjects :  the  warlike 
Franks  cared  not  to  conceal  their  insolent  disdain  for 
a  pusillanimous  people :  and,  above  all,  the  veneration 
of  the  Greeks  for  the  peculiar  forms  and  doctrines  of 
their  faith — the  only  symptoms  of  virtuous  feeling 
which,  discernible  as  it  is  throughout  the  long  annals 
of  their  degradation,  may  command  some  share  of  our 
respect — was  outraged  by  the  undisguised  design  of 
subjugating  their  church  to  the  papal  yoke.  From 
the  very  altar  of  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Sophia,  the 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople  was  compelled,  at  the  dic- 
tation of  the  crusaders,  to  proclaim  the  spiritual 
supremacy  of  the  Roman  Pontiff;  and  the  people 
were  required  to  subject  their  consciences  to  the  doc- 
trines and  discipline  of  a  church  which  they  had  ever 
been  taught  to  regard  with  horror  as  schismatic  and 


EXPEDITION   AGAINST   CONSTANTINOPLE.      321 

heretical.  By  these  measures,  their  political  and  re- 
ligious antipathy  was  extended  to  the  young  emperor, 
as  the  ally  and  creature  of  the  detested  foreigners ; 
and  the  conduct  'of  Alexius  himself  did  not  tend  to 
win  the  favour,  or  to  command  the  respect,  of  hia 
offended  subjects.  While  the  boisterous  orgies  and 
rude  freedoms,  which  marked  the  social  intercourse 
of  the  Western  Nations,  shocked  the  superior  refine- 
ment or  ceremonial  pride  of  the  Greeks,  the  young 
emperor,  regardless  alike  of  the  difference  in  national 
manners,  and  of  his  own  dignity,  continued  to  visit 
the  quarters,  and  to  share  in  the  debaucheries  and 
gaming  of  the  Franks.  In  one  of  these' carousals,  he 
suffered  the  diadem  to  be  snatched  in  sportive  or  con- 
temptuous familiarity  from  his  head,  and  exchanged 
for  the  coarse  woollen  cap  of  some  low  reveller;  and 
the  contempt,  as  well  as  the  aversion  of  his  subjects, 
was  not  unjustly  provoked  against  the  unfeeling  or 
thoughtless  boy,  who  could  thus  basely,  in  the  eyes 
of  insolent  barbarians,  sully  the  lustre  and  dishonour 
the  majesty  of  his  imperial  crown.* 

Through  all  these  causes,  Alexius  soon  found  that 
he  had  become  so  odious  to  his  countrymen  as  to 
render  the  continued  presence  of  his  Latin  allies  in- 
dispensable to  the  security  of  his  throne;  and  he 
endeavoured,  by  the  promise  of  further  rewards,  to 


*  Nicetas,  in  Isaacum  et  Alexw  Angelas,  c.  1-3.     Villehardouin, 
No.  xcix.-ci. 

21 


322  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

\ 

induce  them  to  postpone  their  departure,  and  the 
prosecution  of  their  crusading  vows,  until  the  follow- 
ing spring.  He  found  them  little  loth  to  accede  to 
his  terms.  On  the  first  restoration  of  Isaac,  indeed, 
the  Latin  barons  had  given  some  signs  of  pursuing 
the  original  purpose  of  their  confederacy,  had  sent  a 
defiance  to  the  Sultan  of  Egypt,  and  had  deprecated 
the  anger  of  the  pope  at  their  repeated  disobedience 
by  entreaties  for  pardon,  and  by  assurances  that 
thenceforth  their  arms  should  be  devoted  exclusively 
to  the  sacred  service  of  Palestine.  The  Venetians 
also  had  condescended  to  solicit  a  reconciliation  with 
the  Holy  See ;  and  Innocent  was  so  well  satisfied  with 
the  prospect  of  bringing  the  Greek  Church  under  his 
dominion,  and  so  rejoiced  to  recognise  the  slightest 
symptoms  of  penitence  in  those  stubborn  republicans, 
that  he  extended  absolution  to  them,  as  well  as  to 
their  more  submissive  baronial  confederates.  But,  in 
truth,  both  the  Doge  and  his  noble  allies  were  by  this 
time  almost  equally  ready  to  disregard  the  papal  dis- 
pleasure and  the  objects  of  the  Crusade  for  their  per- 
sonal profit;  and  Alexius  seems  to  have  experienced 
little  difficulty  in  purchasing  their  continued  services 
until  the  spring,  as  soon  as  he  had  quieted  their  con- 
sciences by  repeating  the  condition,  that  he  would 
then  accompany  them  to  Egypt  with  the  recruited 
forces  of  his  empire.* 

Vita  Innocent.  III.  p.  534.    Villehardouin,  No.  ci.-ciii. 


EXPEDITION   AGAINST   CONSTANTINOPLE.      323 

To  occupy  the  interval,  and  enforce  the  recognition 
of  his  disputed  authority  over  the  imperial  territories, 
the  Marquis  of  Montferrat,  with  a  body  of  the  con- 
federate chivalry,  successfully  conducted  the  young 
prince  in  an  expedition  through  the  Thracian  pro- 
vinces; but,  during  this  absence,  the  hatred  of  the 
people  of  the  capital  was  fatally  aggravated  by  the 
misconduct  of  the  Latins.  Though,  for  the  pre- 
vention of  feuds,  a  separate  quarter  had  been  assigned 
to  the  strangers  in  the  suburb  of  Galata  or  Pera,  some 
Flemings  and  Venetians,  during  a  visit  to  the  city, 
attacked  a  commercial  colony  of  Mussulmans,  which 
had  long  enjoyed  the  protection  of  the  Byzantine  em- 
perors. The  infidels,  though  surprised,  defended 
themselves  bravely:  the  Greek  inhabitants  assisted 
them,  while  some  Latin  residents  aided  the  aggres- 
sors ;  and,  during  the  conflict,  the  latter  set  fire  to  a 
building,  from  whence  the  flames  spread  with  such 
frightful  rapidity,  that,  before  they  could  be  extin- 
guished, a  third  part  of  the  magnificent  city  was  re- 
duced to  ashes.  During  eight  days,  the  conflagration 
raged  over  above  a  league  in  extent  from  the  port  to 
the  Propontis:  immense  quantities  of  merchandise 
and  other  valuable  property  were  destroyed,  and 
thousands  of  families  were  reduced  to  beggary.  The 
Latin  chiefs  expressed  their  vain  sorrow  for  a  calamity 
which,  as  produced  by  the  unbridled  license  of  their 
followers,  it  should  rather  have  been  their  care  to  pre- 
vent; but  the  suffering  and  exasperated  Greeks  were 


824  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

little  disposed  to  credit  their  sincerity.  Moreover,  ai 
some  of  the  Italian  settlers  in  the  capital  had  insti- 
gated or  shared  the  outrage,  the  vengeance  of  the  suf- 
ferers was  specially  directed  against  the  ingratitude  of 
these  foreigners  who  had  long  been  naturalized  among 
them ;  and  to  the  number  of  fifteen  thousand  persons, 
the  whole  body  were  compelled  to  abandon  their 
dwellings,  and  to  consult  their  safety  by  flight  to  the 
suburban  quarters  of  the  crusaders.* 

From  this  epoch,  the  national  animosity  of  the 
Greeks  and  Latins  mutually  increased  to  a  deadly 
height ;  and,  when  the  young  emperor  returned  to  his 
capital,  he  found  the  rupture  incurable,  and  his  own 
position  such,  that  he  was  scarcely  permitted  to 
choose  between  the  party  of  his  subjects  and  that  of 
his  allies.  By  the  Greeks,  he  was  more  than  ever 
abhorred  as  the  tool  of  their  oppressors ;  by  the  Latin 
chiefs,  without  consideration  for  the  difficulties  which 
oppressed  his  government,  his  hesitation  in  fulfilling 
the  pecuniary  conditions  of  the  alliance  was  resented 
with  suspicion  and  menaces.  Not  deigning  to  admit 
the  public  distresses  which  the  late  conflagration  had 
grievously  aggravated,  as  any  excuse  for  delay  in  the 
collection  and  payment  of  their  promised  reward,  the 
confederate  leaders  suddenly  adopted  the  most  violent 
counsels;  and  an  embassy  was  sent,  in  the  name  of 


*  Nicetas   in   Isaac,  et   Alex,  p    272-274.     Villehardouin,  No. 
ovii.-cvii. 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  CONSTANTINOPLE.       325 

the  Doge  of  Venice,  and  of  the  barons  of  the  army,  tc 
defy  the  two  emperors  in  their  own  palace.  After 
fearlessly  delivering  their  haughty  message,  the  en- 
voys mounted  their  horses,  and  returned  to  the 
quarters  of  the  confederates;  and  hostilities,  to  which 
the  two  emperors  were  the  only  reluctant  parties,  as 
they  were  also  the  first  victims,  immediately  com- 
menced on  both  sides.* 

Such  was  the  unhappy  condition  of  the  nation  and 
the  times,  that  the  only  man  among  the  Greeks  who 
had  courage  and  ability  to  undertake  the  defence  of 
his  country,  was  placed  in  the  odious  light  of  a  traitor 
and  an  usurper.  Alexius  Angelus  Ducas,  surnamed 
Mourzouflej  from  his  shaggy  eyebrows,  a  prince  allied 
by  blood  to  the  imperial  house,  had  been  the  chief  in- 
strument in  urging  the  vacillating  young  emperor  to 
resist  the  haughty  demands  of  the  Latins ;  and  in  the 
war  of  skirmishes  which  now  ensued,  his  personal 
valour  and  energy  were  invidiously  contrasted  with 
the  weakness  or  reluctance  of  his  sovereign.  The 
seditious  populace  of  Constantinople  demanded  the 
deposition  of  Isaac  and  his  son,  whom  they  stig- 
matized as  the  secret  friends  of  the  invaders;  and 
after  the  prudence  of  several  members  of  the  nobility 
had  induced  them  to  decline  the  proffered  dignity  of 
the  purple,  a  young  patrician,  named  Nicholas  Cana- 
bus,  was  tempted  by  his  vanity  to  accept  the  Byzan- 

*  Villehardouin,  No.  cix.-cxii.     Nicetas,  ubi  suprd. 


326  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

tine  crown.  But  the  valour  of  Ducas  had  meanwhile 
gained  the  suffrages  of  the  Varangian  guards;  the 
imperial  puppet  of  the  hour  was  displaced  without  re- 
sistance; Isaac  and  his  son  were  persuaded  to  seek 
safety  in  flight,  and  were  betrayed  into  a  dungeon,  in 
which  the  former  soon  expired  with  grief  and  terror; 
and  the  more  deserving  patriot  or  successful  conspi- 
rator was  unanimously  called  to  the  throne.  [A.  D.  1204.] 
From  the  hour  in  which  Ducas  assumed  the  insignia  of 
empire,  a  new  impulse  was  given  to  the  Byzantine 
counsels:  the  walls  of  the  capital  were  guarded  with 
active  discipline;  many  sallies  Were  at  least  boldly 
directed;  two  attempts,  frustrated  only  by  the  intre- 
pidity and  skill  of  the  Venetian  sailors,  were  made  to 
burn  the  Latin  fleet;  and  if  it  had  been  possible  to 
nerve  the  hearts  of  the  Greeks  in  the  national  cause, 
its  ruin  might  yet  have  been  averted  by  the  spirit  of 
their  leader.  But  in  every  encounter  before  the  walls 
and  in  the  adjacent  country,  Ducas  was  deserted  by 
the  cowardice  of  his  new  subjects;  he  found  it  neces- 
sary to  negotiate  with  the  invaders;  and  when  they 
insisted  on  the  restoration  of  the  deposed  emperor,  he 
attempted  to  remove  that  obstacle  to  an  accommo- 
dation, since  Isaac  was  already  dead,  by  the  murder 
of  his  remaining  prisoner  Alexius.* 

*  Villehardouin,  No.  cxiii.-cxix.      Vita  Innocent.  III.  p.  534,  535 
Nieetas,  in  Isaac,  ct  Alex.  c.  4,  5,  in  Mourzuflum,  c.  1. 


SECOND   SIEGE   OF   CONSTANTINOPLE.         327 


Theodore  Lascaris. 


SECTION  IV. 


SECOND   SIEGE   OF   CONSTANTINOPLE 

JIEN    the    intelligence    of    this    event 
reached  the  camp,  of  the  crusaders,  the 
causes  of  'resentment  which  had  sepa- 
rated  them  from  the   young   ally  and 
companion  of  their  voyage,  were   forgotten  in  coin- 


328  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

miseration  and  horror  at  his  untimely  and  cruel  fate. 
They  passionately  swore  to  revenge  his  death  upon  a 
perfidious  usurper  and  nation  ;*  and  the  crime  of 
Ducas  served  only  to  exasperate  the  enmity,  while  it 
inflamed  the  ambition  of  these  formidable  assailants. 
Conceiving  themselves  now  released  from  all  obliga- 
tions of  forbearance  toward  a  race  so  inhuman  and 
treacherous  as  the  Greeks,  and  easily  adopting  the 
convenient  doctrine  that  it  was  a  religious  duty  to 
punish  their  murder  of  a  prince  by  the  conquest  and 
dismemberment  of  his  empire,  the  Doge  and  confede- 
rate barons  proceeded  to  sign  a  treaty  of  partition  by 
which,  in  the  hardy  confidence  of  valour,  and  un- 
daunted by  the  disparity  of  their  force  to  the  perilous 
magnitude  of  the  enterprise,  they  anticipated  the  re- 

* 

suit  of  their  astonishing  achievements.  It  was  agreed 
that,  after  liquidating,  out  of  the  booty  to  be  captured, 
the  pecuniary  claims  of  Venice  for  the  expenses  of  the 
armament,  the  remainder  should  be  equally  shared 
between  the  troops  of  the  crusaders  and  the  republic; 
that  the  existence  of  the  empire  should  be  preserved, 
and  one  of  the  confederate  barons  raised  to  its  throne, 
but  with  only  a  fourth  of  its  present  territories  for  the 
support  of  his  title;  and  that,  of  the  remaining  three- 


*  Yet  if  Nicetas  (p.  280)  may  be  credited,  in  preference  to  tha 
Latin  authorities  who  do  not  notice  such  a  transaction,  the  crusading 
barons,  by  the  advice  of  the  Doge  of  Venice,  were  still  willing  to 
have  granted  peace  to  the  usurper  for  fifty  thousand  pounds 
bat  mutual  distrust  broke  off  the  negotiation. 


SECOND  SIEGE  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.   329 

fourths,  one  moiety  should  be  surrendered  in  full 
sovereignty  to  Venice,  and  the  other  divided  into 
imperial  fiefs  among  the  nobles  of  the  Crusade.* 

The  winter  had  been  consumed  in  desultory  con- 
flicts or  in  necessary  preparation;  but,  with  the  re* 
turn  of  spring,  the  confederates  having  completed  the 
arrangement  of  their  daring  project,  proceeded  to  put  it 
into  execution.  To  prevent  a  repetition  of  the  failure 
in  the  last  attack  upon  the  walls  from  the  separation 
of  their  forces,  it  was  determined  that  the  assault  of 
the  capital  should  be  attempted  from  the  port  alone ; 
and  the  Venetian  fleet  being  distributed  into  six 
divisions,  to  correspond  with  the  former  arrangement 
of  the  chivalry  into  as  many  battles,  one  body  of 
knights  embarked  in  the  palanders  of  each  squadron 
with  their  horses  and  followers.  In  this  order  the 
whole  armament  crossed  the  harbour,  and  assaulted 
the  same  line  of  defences,  against  which  the  Venetians 
had  before  successfully  exerted  their  efforts.  But, 
though  the  depth  of  water  permitted  the  vessels  to 
approach  near  enough  to  the  walls  for  the  combatants 
on  the  ramparts  and  on  the  drawbridges  and  rope- 
ladders,  which  were  let  down  from  the  upper  works 
of  the  galleys,  to  fight  hand  to  hand;  the  insecure 
footing  of  the  assailants  on  these  frail  and  floating 
machines,  and  the  firm  vantage-ground  and  superior 


*  Epistola  Balduini,   in    Vita   Innocent.  III.  p.  526.     Danduli, 
Chronicon,  (in  notis,}  p.  826. 


330  THE     FOURTH     CRUSADE. 

numbeis  of  the  besieged,  rendered  the  combat  so 
unequal,  that  the  former,  after  astonishing  feats  of 
valour,  were  finally  repulsed  at  every  point.  In- 
structed but  not  intimidated  by  this  failure,  the 
Venetians  now  undertook  to  supply  their  allies  with 
the  means  of  approaching  the  walls  in  steadier  array ; 
the  large  vessels  were  strongly  lashed  together  in 
pairs,  to  increase  their  stability  and  impulsive  force; 
and  three  days  having  been  spent  in  preparation  and 
refreshment,  the  assault  was  again  given  with  resist- 
less vigour  and  happier  fortune. 

From  sunrise  to  noon,  the  slow  advance  of  the  heavy 
line  of  vessels  was  retarded  by  volleys  of  missiles 
which  were  showered  from  the  walls;  [April  12;] 
the  recent  success  of  the  Greeks  had  animated  their 
spirit  into  a  courageous  resistance;  and  the  issue  of 
the  conflict  still  hung  in  dangerous  suspense :  when  a 
strong  breeze,  suddenly  springing  up  from  the  north, 
all  at  once  drove  the  double  galleys  with  propitious 
violence  against  the  walls.  The  names  of  the  two 
linked  vessels — the  Pilgrim  and  Paradise — having  on 
-board  the  martial  Bishops  of  Soissons  and  Troyes, 
which  first  touched  the  walls,  were  repeated  with  loud 
shouts  as  an  omen  of  divine  aid;  the  panic-stricken 
Greeks  fled  from  their  posts;  four  towers,  with  a  long 
line  of  rampart,  were  escaladed  and  carried ;  and  three 
gates  being  burst  open,  the  knights  led  their  horses  on 
shore  from  the  palanders,  mounted,  and  swept  thrdugh 
the  streets  of  Constantinople  in  battle  array.  In  the 


SECOND    SIEGE    OF    CONSTANTINOPLE.       331 

mazes  of  a  vast  capital,  indeed,  their  cavalry  might 
have  been  useless,  their  feeble  numbers  might  have 
been  lost  and  overpowered;  in  the  hands  of  a  brave 
people,  every  house  might  have  been  defended,  every 
church  and  palace  and  massive  building  converted 
into  an  impregnable  fortress.  So  conscious  were  the 
victors  of  their  danger,  that  they  immediately  began 
to  fortify  the  first  quarters  which  they  had  seized ; 
passe^  the  night  under  arms ;  and  setting  fire  to  the 
streets  in  their  front,  produced  a  new  conflagration, 
which  in  a  few  hours  consumed  another  portion  of  the 
city  equal  in  extent,  according  to  the  confession  of 
their  chronicler,  to  any  three  towns  in  France.  But 
these  precautions"  were  needless  against  an  enemy 
whom  neither  patriotism  nor  despair,  neither  the  ruin 
of  their  country  and  fortunes,  nor  the  violence  with 
which  the  licentious  passions  of  a  ferocious  soldiery 
menaced  their  own  lives  and  the  honour  of  their 
women,  could  rouse  to  one  generous  or  manly  effort. 
The  Emperor  Ducas,  finding  it  impossible  to  animate 
his  craven  subjects  with  any  portion  of  his  own  spirit, 
abandoned  them  to  their  fate,  and  retired  from  the 
city  with  his  family.  After  his  flight,  the  brave 
efforts  of  two  other  illustrious  Greeks,  Theodore 
Ducas  and  Theodore  Lascaris — the  latter  of  whom 
was  destined  subsequently  to  re-establish  and  sustain 
the  fortunes  of  his  country — proved  for  the  time 
equally  ineffectual ;  a  suppliant  train  bearing  crosses 
and  images  sought  the  quarters,  to  implore  the  mercy 


332 


THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 


Desecration  of  the  Churches. 

of  the  crusaders  for  the  fallen  capital ;  and  when 
morning  dawned,  the  Latin  chiefs,  who  had  antici- 
pated that  the  reduction  of  the  whole  city  would  still 
cost  them  at  least  the  labour  of  a  month,  found  them- 
selves masters  of  the  Eastern  empire.* 

But  while  they  gladly  accepted  the  submission,  they 
were  deaf  to  the  abject  prayers  of  the  Greeks.  Con- 
stantinople was  abandoned  to  a  general  pillage,  dur- 
ing which  the  miserable  inhabitants  witnessed  and 
endured  every  extremity  of  horror.  Yet  even  the 
brutal  "and  licentious  soldiery  were  surpassed  in 

*  Villehardouin,  No.  cxx.-cxxx.  Epistola  Baldwin  i  in  Vita  In- 
nocent. III.  p.  535,  536.  Nicetas,  in  Murznflv.m  c.  2. 


SECOND    SIEGE    OF    CONSTANTINOPLE.      333 

cruelty  by  the  Latin  residents  who  had  been  re- 
cently expelled  from  the  city,  and  chiefly  by  whose 
revengeful  malice  two  thousand  of  the  unresisting 
Greeks  were  wantonly  murdered  in  cold  blood.  Insult 
and  sacrilege  were  added  to  rapine  and  debauchery ; 
the  churches  and  national  worship  of  the  Greeks  were 
denied  and  profaned;  and  by  the  followers  of  a  cru- 
sading army  was  strangely  enacted  at  Constantinople 
the  same  impious  scene,  which  another  European 
capital  was  to  exhibit  to  modern  times,  of  enthroning 
a  painted  strumpet  in  a  Christian  cathedral.*  The 
worst  vices  were  freely  perpetrated  by  the  rabble  of 
the  camp  and  Latin  suburbs;  but  attempts  were  made 
to  control  the  privilege  of  rapine  for  the  general  bene- 
fit of  the  victors;  on  pain  of  excommunication  and 
death,  all  individuals  were  commanded  to  bring  their 
booty  to  appointed  stations  for  a  public  division ;  and 
though  some  incurred  the  penalty  of  disobedience,  and 
many  more  successfully  secreted  their  spoils,  the 
quantities  of  treasure  which  were  collected  exceeded 
the  most  greedy  or  sanguine  expectation.  After 
satisfying  the  claims  of  the  Venetians,  the  value  of 
the  share  which  fell  to  the  French  crusaders  is  esti- 
mated, by  their  chronicler,  at  four  or  five  hundred 
thousand  marks,  besides  ten  thousand  horses;  and 

*  This  "  Goddess  of  Reason"  of  the  thirteenth  century  was  seated 
on  the  throne  to  represent  the  office  and  person  of  the  patriarch, 
while  drunken  revellers  in  ribaldrous  songs  and  dances  mocked  the 
chants  and  ceremonies  of  the  Greek  worship.  Nicetas,  p.  303. 


334  TIIE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

another  eye-witness  declares  that,  by  the  division  of 
the  booty,  the  poorest  of  the  host  were  rendered 
wealthy.* 

But  the  gain  of  the  adventurers,  however  enormous, 
bore  a  small  proportion  to  the  destruction  and  waste 
of  property  by  which  their  victory  was  attended.  It 
would  be  vain  to  estimate  the  wealth  of  ages  which 
had  been  consumed  in  three  conflagrations,  or  spoiled 
in  the  wantonness  of  a  sack.  But  every  scholar  and 
lover  of  the  arts  must  deplore  the  irreparable  loss  of 
those  relics  of  the  literature  and  sculpture  of  classical 
antiquity,  which  perished  in  the  fall  of  Constanti- 
nople. Her  libraries,  still  containing  many  precious 
remains  of  the  best  ages  of  Greece  and  Rome,  which- 
have  not  been  preserved  to  our  times,  were  now 
abandoned  to  the  flames  by  the  ignorant  indiffeience 
of  the  barbarian  conquerors ;  but  their  malevolence  or 
cupidity  was  more  actively  exercised  in  the  destruc- 
tion of  those  beauteous  monuments  of  which  Constan- 
tine  had  robbed  the  ancient  seiit  of  empire  to  enrich 
his  new  capital.  In  the  furious  violence  of  conquest, 
or  in  mere  wanton  love  of  destruction,  the  statues  of 
marble  were  mutilated  or  thrown  down  from  their 
pedestals:  but  those  of  bronze  were  melted,  with 
insensible  and  sordid  avarice,  to  afford  a  base  coin  for 
the  payment  of  the  soldiery.  This  barbarous  abuse 


*  Villehardouin,  No.  cxxx.-cxxxv.    Vita  Innocent.  Ill  p.  536-538. 
Nicetas,  in  Murzuflum,  ad  Jin. 


SECOND    SIEGE    OF    CONSTANTINOPLE.      335 


Tower  of  St.  Mark's,  Venice. 

of  the  right  of  conquest  was  probably  the  work  of  the 
rude  barons  ,of  France :  for  the  more  refined  Vene- 
tians, with  better  taste,  if  not  with  less  injustice,  con- 
verted a  portion  of  their  spoil  into  a  national  trophy ; 
«nd  removed  to  St.  Mark's  Elace  in,  their  capital  those 
four  celebrated  horses*  of  bronze  which,  at  the  distance 

*  Before  St.  Mark  still  glow  his  steeds  of  brass, 

Their  gilded  collars  glittering  in  the  s.un ; 
But  is  not  Doria's  menace  come  to  pass  ? 
Are  they  not  hridlcd 


336  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

of  six  centuries,  still  present  the  most  striking  memo- 
rial of  the  glory  and  ruin  of  the  once  mighty  re- 
public. 

After  the  division  of  their  booty,  the  leaders  of  the 
confederate  host  assembled  to  consummate  the  more 
important  work  of  partitioning  an  empire.  For  the 
preliminary  business  of  nominating  one  of  their 
number  to  fill  the  spoliated  throne  of  the  Csesars,  six 
persons  of  each  nation,  French  and  Venetian,  were 
appointed  under  one  of  the  provisions  of  the  existing 
treaty ;  and  this  council  now  balanced  the  claims  of 
the  Marquis  of  Montferrat,  hitherto  the  chosen  leader 
of  the  Crusade,  and  of  the  Count  of  Flanders:  for 
though  the  superior  merits  of  the  Doge  to  either  were 
generously  suggested  by  the  French  electors,  his  own 
countrymen,  with  the  patriotic  jealousy  of  republican 
freedom,  declared  the  imperial  dignity  incompatible 
with  the  office  of  the  first  magistrate  of  their  com- 
monwealth. The  final  choice  of  the  council  fell  upon 
the  Count  of  Flanders,  determined,  perhaps,  by  his 
descent  from  Charlemagne,  his  alliance  by  blood  to 
the  King  of  France,  and  the  anticipated  repugnance 
of  the  French  barons  to  obey  an  Italian  sovereign 
As  >  soon  as  this  decision  of  the  electors  was  an- 
nounced, Baldwin  was  raised  upon  a  buckler,  accord- 
ing to  the  Byzantine  custom,  by  his  brother  barons 
and  knights,  borne  on  their  shoulders  to  the  church 
of  St.  Sophia,  invested  with  the  purple,  and  exhibited 
to  the  Greeks  as  their  new  emperor.  His  rival,  and 


SECOND    SIEGE    OF    CONSTANTINOPLE.      337 


Ceremony  of  raising  an  elected  King  on  a  Buckler. 

now  his  vassal,  the  Marquis  of  Montferrat,  was  con- 
soled by  the  possession  of  Macedonia  and  great  part  of 
proper  Greece,  with  the  regal  title ;  and  the  remain- 
ing barons  shared,  by  lot  or  precedence  of  rank,  the 
various  provinces  of  the  empire  in  Europe  and  Asia, 
which  remained  at  their  choice,  after  the  stipulated 
appropriation  of  three-eighths  of  the  whole  to  the  Ve- 
netian republic.  Besides  that  proportion  of  the  capi- 
tal itself,  Venice  thus  obtained  the  sovereignty  of 
Crete,  of  most  of  the  islands  in  the  Ionian  and 


338  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

seas,  and  of  a  long  chain  of  maritime  ports  on  the 
continent  from  the  capes  of  the  Adriatic  to  the  Bos- 
phorus.  While  the  republic,  in  virtue  of  this  par- 
tition, arrogated  to  her  venerable  Doge  and  his  suc- 
cessors the  proud  and  accurate  title  of  lords  of  one- 
fourth  and  one-eighth  of  the  empire  of  Romania,  to  the 
new  sovereign  of  Constantinople  had  been  reserved  in 
immediate  sovereignty  only  one-fourth  of  the  Byzan- 
tine dominions;  and  on  all  sides  the  narrow  and 
inadequate  limits  of  his  throne  were  surrounded  by 
vassals,  who  only  nominally  acknowledged,  and  by 
enemies  who  wholly  denied  the  legality  of  his  reign.* 
The  eagerness  of  the  Latin  adventurers  to  occupy 
their  several  allotments  of  the  territorial  spoil,  dis- 
covered the  total  insufficiency  of  their  divided 
strength  to  secure  the  work  of  conquest,  which  they 
had  so  daringly  achieved.  The  dispersion  of  the 
French  barons,  each  attended  by  no  more  than  a  few 
score  of  lances,  over  the  vast  provinces  of  the  empire, 
betrayed  to  the  subjugated  nation  the  weakness  of 
their  conquerors,  while  the  impolitic  contempt  by 
which  the  Greeks  of  all  ranks  found  themselves  ex- 
cluded from  employments  and  honours  in  the  Latin 
court,  increased  their  impatience  to  escape  from  a 
yoke,  which  they  still  wanted^  courage  or  concert  to 
break.  By  degrees,  therefore,  from  the  capital  and 


*  Villehardouin,  No.  cxxxvi.-cxl.     Danduli   Chron.  lib.  x.  c.  3. 
Du  Cange,  Hist,  de  Constantinople  sous  leg  Empereurs  Franfais,  lib  1. 


SECOND    SIEGE    OF    CONSTANTINOPLE.      339 

its  neighbouring  provinces  on  the  European  shores, 
the  noblest  born  and  the  bravest  of  the  Greeks  with- 
drew into  less  accessible  quarters  of  the  dismembered 
empire  to  range  themselves  under  the  standards  of 
native  leaders.  In  Europe,  for  a  moment  after  the 
fall  of  Constantinople,  the  imperial  title  was  still  arro- 
gated by  the  two  fugitive  usurpers,  the  elder  Alexius 
Angelus  and  Ducas  Mourzoufle;  and  between  them 
an  apparent  reconciliation  was  effected.  During  his 
short  reign,  Ducas  had  endeavoured  to  strengthen  his 
pretensions  to  the  imperial  dignity  by  seizing  the 
hand  of  a  daughter  of  Alexius ;  and  being  now  driven 
out  of  Adrianople  on  the  advance  of  the  Latins,  he 
obtained,  through  the  tender  of  allegiance  to  his 
father-in-law,  a  promise  of  such  protection  as  his  camp 
could  afford.  But  he  had  no  sooner  placed  himself  in 
the  power  of  Alexius,  than  ,that  tyrant,  even  more 
perfidious  than  impotent,  caused  him  to  be  deprived 
of  his  eyes  and  thrust  from  the  camp.  In  this  sight- 
less and  horrid  condition,  as  he  was  endeavouring  to 
escape  across  the  Hellespont  into  Asia,  Mourzoufle  was 
arrested  by  the  Latins;  brought  to  trial  for  his  own 
worst  crime,  the  murder  of  young  Alexius;  and  con 
demned  to  be  cast,  alive  and  headlong,  from  the  lofty 
summit  of  the  Theodosian  pillar  at  Constantinople 
upon  the  marble  pavement  beneath.*  The  execution 
of  this  dreadful  sentence  on  him  was  soon  followed  by 

v 

*  Villehardouin,  No.  clxi.-clxv.     Nicetas,  in  Balduin,  p.  393 


340  THE    FOURTH    CRUSADE. 

the  captivity  of  his  betrayer  Alexius,  who  was  sur- 
prised by  Boniface  of  Montferrat,  and  transported  to 
an  Italian  dungeon.  By  the  fate  of  these  two  usurp- 
ers, the  principal  support  of  the  national  cause  of  the 
Greeks  devolved  upon  a  young  hero,  who  might  main- 
tain, in  right  of  his  wife,  the  hereditary  claims,  while 
he  spurned  the  base  qualities  of  the  Angeli;  and  in 
whom  the  valour  of  Ducas  was  unsullied  by  the  guilt 
of  treason  and  murder.  This  was  Theodore  Lascaris, 
who  had  also  married  a  daughter  of  Alexius  Angelus ; 
and  whose  gallant  devotion  to  his  country  had  already 
been  signalized  in  the  two  sieges  of  Constantinople. 
Retiring,  after  the  fall  of  the  capital,  across  the  Bos- 
phorus  into  the  recesses  of  Bithynia,  and  being  joined 
by  the  most  generous  and  congenial  spirits  of  his 
nation,  he  there  organized  a  resistance  against  the 
Latin  adventurers,  which  not  only  prevented  them 
from  ever  gaining  a  secure  establishment  in  the 
Asiatic  provinces  of  the  empire,  but  prepared  their 
expulsion  from  their  European  conquests.  But  the 
fate  both  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  dynasties,  which  for 
sixty  years  were  to  dispute  the  sceptre  of  the  Eastern 
empire,  will  reclaim  our  attention  hereafter;  and  the 
connection  of  the  History  of  the  Crusades  with  the 
revolutions  of  Constantinople  closes  at  the  period 
before  us. 

In  the  division  and  enjoyment  of  a  conquered 
empire,  the  confederate  barons  who  had  embraced  the 
service  of  the  Cross  now  seemed  as  completely  to  have 


SECOND    SIEGE    OF    CONSTANTINOPLE.      341 

forgotten  the  original  object  of  their  expedition,  as  if 
it  had  never  been  undertaken  for  the  deliverance  of 
the  Holy  Sepulchre ;  and  the  vain  trophies  of  a  vic- 
tory, not  over  Paynim  but  Christian  enemies — the 
gates  and  chain-  of  the  harbour  of  Constantinople — 
sent  by  the  new  emperor  of  the  East  to  Palestine,* 
were  the  only  fruits  of  the  Fourth  Crusade  which 
ever  reached  the  Syrian  shores. 

*  Nicetas,  in  Ealduin,  p.  383. 


Gethiemaiu. 


342 


THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 


Baldwin  I.,  Emperor  of  the  East. 


CHAPTER  V. 


ast  jf0«r 


SECTION  I  —  HISTORY  OF   THE   LATIN  EMPIRE  OF  THE  EAST. 

ROM  the  first  hour  of  its  establish- 
ment, the  LATIN  EMPIRE  OF  THE 
EAST  was  foredoomed  to  a  hope- 
less condition  of  weakness  and 
decay.  The  appropriation  of 
three-eighths  of  the  conquered 
provinces  to  the  Venetian  repub- 
lic; the  division  of  an  equal 


LATIN    EMPIRE    OF    THE    EAST.  343 

portion  among  feudal  chieftains,  who  acknowledged 
only  a  nominal  supremacy  in  the  imperial  possessor 
of  the  remaining  fourth;  the  escape  of  the  bravest  of 
the  Greeks  into  Epirus  and  Asia,  and  the  common 
and  deep  detestation  with  which  the  whole  race  of 
their  subjugated  countrymen  regarded  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Western  barbarians  and  the  supremacy 
of  a  heretical  church,  all  conspired  to  promote  the 
rapid  dissolution  of  that  splendid  but  unreal  fabric  of 
conquest,  which  a  few  thousand  adventurers  had 
suddenly  founded  amid  the  ruins  of  the  Byzantine 
throne. 

The  mutual  jealousies  and  dissensions  of  the  con- 
querors would  alone  have  been  fatal  to  the  stability  of 
their  dominion;  and  the  contempt  in  which  they  held 
the  pusillanimous  character  of  the  Greeks,  blinded 
them  to  the  imprudence  of  outraging  the  national  feel- 
ings of  an  acute  and  subtle  people,  who  eagerly 
watched  every  symptom  of  their  weakness  and  dis- 
union, and  silently  awaited  the  season  of  reaction  and 
revenge. 

So  insensible  were  the  Latins  to  the  insecurity 
and  danger  of  their  position,  that,  only  a  few 
months  after  the  conquest  of  Constantinople,  as  if  no 
better  occupation  could  be  found  against  the  common 
enemy,  their  two  principal  potentates,  the  emperor 
Baldwin  and  Boniface  of  Montferrat,  the  new  king  of 
Macedonia,  engaged  in  an  open  civil  war,  which  was 
terminated  with  difficulty  by  the  intervention  of  the 


344       THE  LAST  FOUR  CRUSADES. 

Doge  of  Venice,  and  of  the  sovereign  peers  of  the  dis- 
membered empire.* 

This  quarrel  was  scarcely  composed  when  the 
titular  reign  of  Baldwin  was  suddenly  disturbed  by  a 
more  formidable  opponent,  [A.  D.  1204,]  whose  hos- 
tility was  provoked  by  the  Latin  pride,  and  assisted 
by  Greek  disaffection.  This  was  Calo  Johannes,  or 
Joannice,  king  of  Bulgaria,  the  ancient  enemy  of  the 
Greek  empire,  who,  on  its  subversion,  had  welcomed 
the  Latins  as  natural  allies,  and  invited  their  friend- 
ship by  a  congratulatory  embassy.  But  Baldwin, 
who  pretended  to  have  succeeded  to  all  the  rights  of 
the  deposed  dynasty,  repulsed  the  Bulgarian  envoys 
with  disdain ;  treated  their  master  as  a  revolted  rebel 
against  the  Byzantine  throne;  and  instead  of  accept- 
ing his  alliance,  demanded  his  allegiance.  Joannice 
smothered  this  insult  only  until  his  emissaries  had 
prepared  the  Greek  provincials  of  Thrace  to  become 
the  ready  instruments  of  his  vengeance.  An  exten- 
sive conspiracy  wa"s  quickly  and  secretly  organized; 
and  the  signal  for  its  explosion  was  the  departure 
from  Constantinople  of  Henry,  the  brother  of  Baldwin, 
with  the  flower  of  the  Latin  chivalry,  to  attempt  the 
reduction  of  the  Asiatic  provinces.  Throughout 
Thrace,  the  Greek  population  rose  simultaneously  and 

_r_. 

*  Geoffrey  de  Villehardouin,  Histoire  de  la  Prise  de  Constanti- 
nople, Ed.  Du  Cange,  fol.  Paris,  1657.  Paragraphs  No.  cxl.-clx. 
Du  Cange,  Histoire  de  Constantinople  sous  les  Empereur&  Francois, 
(in  codem  loco,')  lib.  i 


LATIN    EMPIRE    OF    THE    EAST.  345 

Buddenly  against  their  oppressors;  the  Latins  in  the  open 
country,  unarmed  and  surprised,  were  everywhere  mer- 
cilessly slaughtered ;  [A.  D.  1205 ;]  the  feeble  garrison? 
of  the  towns,  for  the  most  part,  were  either  overpow- 
ered by  the  first  shock  of  the  revolt  and  massacred,  or 
escaped  in  dismay  by  a  gathering  retreat  upon  the 
capital;  and  the  loss  of  Adrianople,  the  second  city 
of  the  empire,  where  the  Venetians  had  established 
their  chief  post,  and  whence  their  forces  were  driven 
in  disorder  by  the  insurgent  populace,  completed  the 
sum  of  disaster.  To  aggravate  its  effects,  Joannice 
himself,  at  the  head  of  his  Bulgarians,  and  of  a  yet 
more  fierce  and  savage  horde  of  Comans,*  or  Turco- 
man auxiliaries,  poured  into  Thrace,  and  discovered 

*  In  the  Memoirs  of  Joinville  (Johnes's  Translation,  p.  204)  is  a 
curious  passage  illustrative  of  a  custom  of  this  wild  horde  of  the 
Comans.  Louis  IX.  of  France  was  joined  in  Palestine  by  "  a  most 
noble  knight"  of  Constantinople,  who  informed  the  king  that,  when 
the  Comans  had  once  concluded  an  alliance  with  the  Latins,  their 
chief  had  insisted  on  the  contracting  parties  "being  blooded,  and 
drinking  alternately  of  each  other's  blood  in  sign  of  brotherhood." 
Joinville  adds  that,  when  this  Byzantine  knight  and  his  companions 
took  service  with  the  French,  they  required  the  like  pledge  of  him- 
self and  his  countrymen ;  "  and  our  blood  being  mixed  with  wine, 
was  drunk  by  each  party  as  constituting  us  all  brothers  of  the  same 
blood."  The  mention  of  this  barbarous  rite,  thus  borrowed  by  the 
Latins  from  the  pagan  Comans,  furnishes  the  indefatigable  Du 
Cange.  with  an  occasion  to  discuss  the  whole  subject  of  brotherly 
adoption  in  arms.  Diss.  xxi.  The  Comans  were  a  Tartar,  or  Tur- 
coman horde,  who  encamped  in  the  12th  and  13th  centuries  on  the 
verge  of  Moldavia.  They  were  mostly  pagans,  but  some  were  Mo- 
hammedans, and  the  whole  tribe  was  converted  to  Christianity  in  1370 
by  Loiiis,  King  of  Hungary.  , 


346  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

to  the  Latins  the  extent  of  the  combination  against 
them. 

At  this  perilous  juncture,  Baldwin  and  his  gallant 
compeers,  who  had  rallied  the  broken  remains  of  their 
chivalry  round  the  capital,  evinced  the  same  high  and . 
dauntless  spirit,  and  the  same  untempered  disdain  of 
all  prudential  considerations,  which  had  already 
achieved  and  endangered  the  possession  of  an  empire. 
Instead  of  awaiting  the  arrival  of  Henry  of  Flanders 
and  his  more  numerous  bands,  who  had  been  recalled 
from  the  Asiatic  war  on  the  first  alarm,  the  emperor 
resolved  to  take  the  field  at  the  head  of  his  scanty 
array,  and  to  advance  for  the  immediate  recovery  of 
Adrianople  from  the  insurgents.  The  march  was 
accomplished,  and  that  city  had  already  been  in- 
vested, when  the  Latin  chivalry  was  enveloped  in  a 
plain  by  a  cloud  of  Bulgarian  and  Turcoman  horse, 
who,  according  to  their  usual  mode  of  combat,  fled 
before  every  charge ;  lured  their  enemies  into  a  pre- 
cipitate and  disorderly  pursuit;  and  when  the  heavily 
armed  French  cavaliers  had  utterly  exhausted  their 
own  strength  and  that  of  their  steeds,  turned  sud- 
denly upon  them,  surrounded,  and  cut  them  to  pieces. 
The  Count  of  Blois,  whose  rash  contempt  of  a  salutary 
caution  had  involved  the  Latin  army  in  their  destruc- 
tion, paid  the  penalty  of  his  presumption,  and  was 
slain  on  the  spot;  the  emperor  Baldwin,  whose  im- 
petuosity had  been  carried  away  by  the  example,  fell 
alive  into  the  hands  of  a  cruel  enemy;  and  the  rem- 


LATIN    EMPIRE    OF    THE    EAST.  347 

nant  of  the  Latin  host  was  saved  from  destruction 
only  by  the  presence  of  mind,  the  skill,  and  the 
patient  courage  of  the  aged  Doge  of  Venice  and  of  the 
Marshal  Villehardouin,  the  historian  of  the  war.* 

While  the  venerable  Dandolo  assumed  the  general 
direction  of  a  retreat,  his  noble  compeer  rallied  a  rear- 
guard, and  at  its  head  firmly  sustained  the  furious 
assaults  of  the  pursuers  ^  and  in  such  order  was  safely 
accomplished  an  arduous  march  of  three  days,  from 
the  walls  of  Adrianople  to  the  shores  of  the  Helles- 
pont. There,  the  exhausted  forces  of , the  Latins  were 
met  by  the  troops  under  Henry  of  Flanders,  who  had 
landed  from  the  Asiatic  coast;  whose  junction  re- 
stored the  balance  of  strength ;  and  whose  arrival,  if 
it  had  been  awaited  before  the  late  expedition,  might 
have  averted  its  disastrous  issue.  In  the  first  igno- 
rance of  the  Latins  of  the  fate  of  their  captive  em- 
peror, the  regency  of  his  dominions  was  intrusted  to 
his  brother  Henry ;  but,  after  the  lapse  of  a  year,  the 
king  of  Bulgaria,  who  had  formerly  obtained  the 
papal  friendship  and  patronage  by  professing  his  con- 
version to  the  Latin  church,  replied  to  the  solicita- 
tions of  Innocent  III.  for  the  release  of  Baldwin,  that 
his  imperial  prisoner  had  expired  in  his  dungeon. 
The  manner  of  his  death  was  never  ascertained ;  but 
the  fact  (although  twenty  years  later  it  was  strongly 

*  Villehardouin,  No.  clxv.-cxciii. .  Nicetae  Acominati  Choniatee, 
JJtstoria,  (in  Script.  Byzant.},  p.  383-416.  Du  Cange,  Hist,  Con- 
ttant.  lib.  i.  adjinem. 


348  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

brought  into  doubt)  was  firmly  believed  by  his  East- 
ern subjects;  and  after  an  affectionate  delay,  until 
all" hope  of  his  existence  had  been  lost,  his  brother 
Henry  consented  to  assume  the  imperial  title.* 

In  the  brief  and  calamitous  annals  of  the  Latin 
Empire  of  the  East,  the  reign  of  the  virtuous  and  pru- 
dent Henry  presents  the  sole  interval  of  comparative 
prosperity.  By  the  death  of  his  original  compeers  in 
the  Fourth  Crusade,  he  was  gradually  left  to  sustain 
with  his  single  energy  the  arduous  duties  of  defending 
the  Latin  States  against  the  hostility,  both  of  the  Bul- 
garians in  Europe,  and  of  the  Greek  refugees  of  Asia. 
The  King  of  Macedonia,  after  a  zealous  and  gallant 
co-operation  against  the  common  enemy,  which  was 
cemented  by  a  family  alliance  with  the  emperor,  was 
slain  in  an  unfortunate  skirmish  by  the  Bulgarian 
troops;  the  valiant  marshal  and  faithful  historian, 
Geoffroy  of  Villehardouin  did  not  long  survive  him ; 
and  the  decease  of  both  had  been  preceded  by  that  of 


*  Villehardouin,  Nicetas,  Du  Gauge,  ubi  suprd  ad  fin,  Gesta 
Innocentii  III.  (in  Muratori,  Script.  Rer.  Ital.  vol.  iii.)  c.  109.  The 
balance  of  evidence  is  certainly  on  the  whole  against  the  identity 
with  the  captive  emperor,  of  the  claimant  who  appeared  in  Flanders 
about  twenty  years  afterward,  but  his  story  was  not  improbable,  and 
scarcely  justifies  the  confidence  with  which  Gibbon  (ch.  Ixi.  notes  29, 
30)  has  pronounced  it  an  imposture,  chiefly,  perhaps,  for  the  purpose 
of  ridiculing  the  "fables  which  Were  believed  by  the  monks  of  St 
Alban's."  He  was  hanged  as  an  impostor  in  the  great  square  of 
Lisle,  by  order  of  Jane,  Countess  of  Flanders,  the"  daughter  of  the 
lost  Baldwin. 


LATIN    EMPIRE    OF    THE    EAST.  349 

the  brave  old  Doge.*  But,  though  deprived  of  these 
pillars  of  the  Latin  glory  and  fortune,  Henry,  by  his 
courage  and  wisdom,  nobly  upheld  and  repaired  the 
shattered  edifice  of  dominion.  By  rescinding  the  im- 
politic exclusion  of  his  Greek  subjects  from  the  public 
service,  he  conciliated  their  affections;  and  his  judi- 
cious measures  were  assisted  by  the  treacherous 
cruelty  and  tyranny  with  which  the  Bulgarian  king 
repaid  the  Byzantine  provincials  for  their  seasonable 
revolt  and  alliance.  That  barbarian  had  already 
commenced  a  project  for  the  depopulation  of  Thrace, 
and  for  the  forcible  withdrawal  of  the  inhabitants 
beyond  the  Danube,  when  his  measures  were  arrested 
by  the  approach  of  Henry;  who,  moved  by  the  en- 
treaties of  the  Greeks,  hastened  to  the  deliverance  of 
the  repentant  rebels  at  the  head  of  only  a  few  hun- 
dred knights  and  their  attendants.  The  inhabitants, 
on  his  approach,  welcomed  him  with  open  arms ;  Bul- 
garian hosts  of  immense  numerical  superiority  were 
repeatedly  .defeated  by  the  skill  of  Henry  and  the 
well-directed  valour  of  the  Latin  chivalry ;  and  Joan- 
nice  was  ignominiously  expelled  from  the  Thracian 

*  Dandolo  was  buried  in  the  Church  of  St.  Sophia  at  Constanti- 
nople, and  his  mausoleum  existed  till  the  destruction  of  the  Greek 
empire;  but  it  was  demolished  when  that  church  was  converted  into 
a  Turkish  mosque.  A  Venetian  painter,  who  worked  for  several 
years  at  the  court  of  Mohammed  II.,  obtained  from  the  Sultan,  on 
his  return  to  his  own  country,  the  cuirass,  the  helmet,  the  spurs,  and 
the  cloak  of  the  Doge,  which  he  presented  to  the  family  of  that  illua 
trious  man.  Michaud,  ii.  172. 


350       THE  LAST  FOUR  CRUSADES. 

provinces.  The  murder  of  the  Bulgarian  tyrant  by 
his  own  subjects  shortly  afterward  relieved  the 
Latin  empire  from  his  hostility;  and  his  successor 
gladly  accepted  an  honourable  peace  from  his  con- 
queror. 

The  moderation  of  Henry  induced  him  to  seize 
the  first  opportunity  of  concluding  with  the  Greek 
sovereigns  of  Nice  and  Epirus  similar  pacifications; 
[A.  D.  1216 ;]  which  defined  the  limits  of  their  respect- 
ive states,  and  enabled  him  to  close  in  tranquil  glory 
a  reign  of  ten  years,  which  was  too  short  for  the  hap- 
piness of  his  subjects.* 

The  mention  of  the  Greek  empire  of  Nice  may 
momentarily  divert  our  attention  to  the  Asiatic  shores 
of  the  Bbsphorus.  [A.  D.  1204.]  When  Theodore 
Lascaris  withdrew  from  servitude  at  the  capture  of 
Constantinople,  to  sustain  the  cause  of  personal  and 
national  freedom  in  the  fastnesses  of  Bithynia,  his 
authority  was  acknowledged  by  only  three  cities  and 
two  thousand  armed  followers;  but  his  service  was 
soon  embraced  by  all  his  fugitive  countrymen  from 
the  capital,  who  shared  his  disdain  of  a  foreign  yoke ; 
and  his  martial  efforts  were  favoured  by  the  calami- 
ties of  the  Bulgarian  war,  which  compelled  the  Latins 
to  withdraw  their  forces  from  the  prosecution  of  their 
Asiatic  conquests.  On  the  twofold  claim  of  his  own 


*  Villehardouin,   No.  cxcii.  ad  Jin.      Gesta  Innocent.  Ill  c.  106, 
107.     Du  Cange,  Hist.  Constant,  lib.  ii.  c.  1-22 


LATIN    EMPIRE    OF    THE    EAST.  351 

merit,  and  of  his  union  with  the  daughter  of  Alexius 
Angelus,  the  right  of  Lascaris  to  the  imperial  dignity 
was  universally  acknowledged  by  his  adherents ;  and 
establishing  the  seat  of  his  government  at  Nice,  he 
made  that  city  the  capital  of  a  state,  which  he  quickly 
extended  by  his  arms  from  the  Hellespont  to  the 
Meander.  His  reign  of  eighteen  years  was  termi- 
nated by  death  in  the  meridian  of  his  age;  but  his 
place  was  filled  by  a  noble  Greek  of  congenial  virtue, 
John  Ducas  Vataces,  who  had  married  his  daughter, 
and  succeeded  to  his  throne;  [A.  n.  1222;]  and  whose 
glorious  career  of  thirty-three  years  was  not  more  dis- 
tinguished by  his  success  in  arms,  than  by  the  virtues 
of  his  domestic  administration.* 

While  the  native  dominion  of  the  Greeks  was  re- 
viving under  these  two  heroes,  the  Latin  empire  had 
become  a  prey,  after  the  death  of  Henry,  to  all  the 
disorders  of  a  feeble  government.  By  the  decease  of 
the  last  of  the  two  Flemish  princes  who  had  worn  the 
crown  of  Constantinople,  the  male  line  of  their  house 
was  extinct :  the  daughter  of  •  Baldwin  had  succeeded 
to  the  possession  of  his  European  state;  Henry  had 
left  no  issue,  and  the  feudatories  of  the  Byzantine 
state  offered  his  throne  to  Peter  de  Courtenay,  [A.  D. 
1217,]  a  French  baron  who  had  married  his  sister, 
and  whose  regal  pedigree  has  been  illustrated  by  a 


*  Gibbon,  ch.  Ixii.,  whom,  for  the  Annals  of  the  Greek  Empire  of 
Nice,  we  shall  be  contented  to  abridge. 


352       THE  LAST  FOUR  CRUSADES. 

great  historian.*  Peter  accepted  the  tempting  but 
fatal  honour,  incautiously  traversed  the  dangerous 
passes  of  Greece  with  a  train  of  French  knights,  and, 
being  entrapped  into  a  perfidious  truce  with  the 
despot  of  Epirus,  the  second  of  a  race  of  Comnenian 
princes  who  had  established  an  obscure  independence 
on  the  ruins  of  the  Greek  empire,  was  thrown  into  a 
dungeon,  in  which  he  ended  his  life.  [A.  D.  1219.] 
Meanwhile  the  wife  of  Courtenay,  lolanta,  the  new 
Latin  Empress  of  the  East,  had  reached  Constanti- 
nople by  sea;  and  during  the  short  residue  of  her 
life,  the  government  was  administered  in  her  name  as 
regent  for  her  captive  or  deceased  lord.f 

On  her  death,  and  the  refusal  of  her  eldest  son  to 
abandon  his  French  fief,  Robert,  his  next  brother, 
was  summoned  to  ascend  the  Eastern  throne,  [A.  D. 
1221,]  and  his  arrival  at  Constantinople  was  followed 
by  his  coronation.  The  chivalrous  qualities  of  the 
House  of  Courtenay,  which  had  been  signalized  in 
Europe  and  in  Palestine,  were  ill  sustained  by  Robert. 
He  proved  himself  at  once  pusillanimous,  indolent, 
and  licentious ;  and,  during  his  reign  of  seven  years, 
the  Latin  empire,  shaken  on  either  side  by  the  rude 
assaults  of  the  Greeks  of  Nice  and  Epirus,  rocked  to 
its  foundations.  So  corrupt  was  the  spirit  of  the 


*  Gibbon,  xi.  287.     The  English  branch  of  this  ancient  family  is 
represented  by  the  Courtenays,  Earls  of  Devon, 
f  Du  Cange,  Hist.  Constant  lib.  ii.  c.  22,  adjin. 


LATIN    EMPIRE    OF    THE     EAST.  353 

French  adventurers  who  sought  erhployment  in  the 
East,  that  the  Greek  Emperor  Vataces  found  no  diffi- 
culty in  enlisting  whole  bodies  of  them  into  hia 
service  against  their  countrymen.  With  such  aid, 
his  arms  were  everywhere  successful;  the  fleets 
which  he  equipped  commanded  the  seas,  and  reduced 
several  of  the  islands  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor; 
and,  in  a  disastrous  attempt  to  check  his  victorious 
career,  most  of  the  hardy  veterans  of  the  Fourth  Cru- 
sade, who  had  survived  tJhe  storms  of  the  Bulgarian 
and  Grecian  wars,  were  numbered  with  the  slain.  A 
disgraceful  feud  in  the  Byzantine  palace  finally  drove 
Robert  from  a  throne  which  he  wanted  courage  to 
defend  against  either  foreign  or  domestic  enemies. 
To  revenge  his  seduction  of  the  affianced  bride  of  a 
Burgundian  gentleman,  the  infuriated  lover  burst 
with  a  band  of  his  friends  into  the  imperial  retreat, 
barbarously  mutilated  the  beauty  of  his  fair  mistress, 
cast  the  mother,  who  had  pandered  to  her  falsehood, 
into  the  Hellespont,  and  openly  braved  the  power  of 
her  paramour.  When  Robert  demanded  the  assist- 
ance of  his  barons  to  punish  this  unpardonable  out- 
rage upon  the  laws  of  humanity  and  the  majesty  of 
the  purple,  they  justified  the  act,  and  made  common 
cause  with  the  criminal;  and  the  craven  prince,  to- 
impotent  to  enforce  retribution  for  the  cruel  offence 
and  affront  which  he  had  provoked,  abandoned  his 
throne,  and  appealed  to  the  judgment  of  the  Papal 
Court.  [A.  D.  1228.]  But  the  pope  was  unwilling  to 

23 


354 


THE    LAST    FOUR     CRUSADES. 


Baldwin  II. 

commit  his  authority  to  the  hazard  of  so  profitless  a 
quarrel;  and  the  imperial  exile  was  hurried  by  grief 
or  pride  to  a  premature  grave.* 

As  Robert  died  without  issue,  the  succession  to  his 
crown  devolved  upon  his  younger  brother,  Baldwin  II., 
who  was  born  at  Constantinople  shortly  after  the 
arrival  of  the  Empress  lolanta  and  the  capture  of  her 
husband,  and  who  was  still  a  minor.  But,  as  the 


*  Du  Cange,  Hist.  Constant,  lib.  iii.  c.  1-12. 


LATIN     EMPIRE    OF    THE    EAST.  355 

necessities  of  the  state  demanded  a  defender  of  ma- 
turer  years,  the  barons  of  the  empire  oifered  a  share  of 
the  imperial  dignity  to  a  valiant  nobleman  of  Cham- 
pagne, John  de  Brienne,  who  had  already,  as  we  shall 
hereafter  observe,  been  raised  by  his  merit  to  the 
titular  crown  of  Jerusalem,  and  had  resigned  that 
visionary  diadem,  with  the  hand  of  his  eldest 
daughter,  to  Frederic  II.,  Emperor  of  the  West.  Al- 
though this  regal  adventurer  was  already  far  ad- 
vanced in  life,  he  accepted  the  proposal  of  the  Byzan- 
tine barons  that  he  should  ascend  the  imperial  throne 
of  Constantinople,  upon  condition  of  marrying  his 
second  daughter  to  his  young  colleague  and  destined 
successor,  Baldwin  II.  During  nine  years,  the  aged 
hero  nobly  sustained  the  arduous  duties  of  his  station 
against  the  increasing  resources  and  energies  of  the 
empire  of  Nice;  but  Vataces  had  now  permanently 
re-established  the  Greek  standard  in  Europe,  and  had 
recovered  the  greater  portion  of  the  ancient  possessions 
of  his  nation  in  Thrace;  the  Latin  territories  were 
gradually  circumscribed  within  the  environs  of  the 
capital ;  the  alliance  of  the  Greek  emperor  with  the 
King  of  Bulgaria  threatened  total  ruin  to  the  falling 
state ;  and  the  last  exploit  of  John  de  Brienne  was 
the  repulse  of  their  combined  army  and  navy  of  one 
hundred  thousand  men  and  three  hundred  galleys 
from  the  walls  of  Constantinople.*  [A.  D.  1237.] 

*  Du  Cange,  Hist.  Constant,  lib.  iii.  c.  13,  ad  Jin. 


356  THE    LAST    FOUR    CBtJSADES. 

The  strength  of  the  capital  and  the  prowess  of  John 
de  Brienne  had  deferred  for  twenty-four  years  the 
total  extinction  of  the  Latin  empire ;  but  the  sceptre 
of  all  its  territories  was  already  held  by  the  Greek 
conqueror.  During  his  active  and  glorious  career, 
Vataces  had  compelled  the  Comnenian  sovereign  of 
Epirus  to  resign  the  imperial  title;  and,  reuniting 
Western  Greece  to  the  Eastern  Provinces,  he  had 
consolidated  his  dominion  over  the  whole  expanse  of 
country,  from  the  Euxine  to  the  Adriatic,  and  from 
the  Danube  to  the  Mediterranean.  In  a  brief  reign 
of  only  four  years,  his  son  and  successor,  Theodore 
Lascaris  II.,  carried  his  victorious  arms  into  the  re- 
cesses of  Bulgaria,  [A.  D.  1255,]  and  reduced  that  wild 
kingdom  within  its  natural  limits,  and  into  its  ancient 
submission  to  the  Eastern  Empire.  The  infancy  of 
his  son  John  made  way  for  the  rise  of  another  hero 
of  noble  Greek  family,  Michael  Palaeologus.  [A.  D. 
1259.]  On  the  death  of  the  second  Theodore  Lasca- 
ris, the  guardianship  of  the  infant  emperor  was 
wrested  by  a  conspiracy  from  the  hands  of  an  un- 
popular favourite  of  the  last  reign,  and  obtained  by 
Palaeologus,  whose  martial  reputation  and  post  of  con- 
stable of  the  French  mercenaries  gave  him  the  com- 
mand, and  had  secured  him  the  affections,  of  the  im- 
perial troops.  The  new  regent  soon  aspired  to  a 
higher  dignity,  to  which  his  pretensions  were  founded 
not  only  on  his  personal  merit,  but  on  the  superior 
right  of  hereditary  descent  over  the  reigning  dynasty, 


LATIN    EMPIRE    OF    THE    EAST.  357 

since  his  mother  was  a  daughter  of  the  last  Alexius, 
arid  an  elder  sister  of  the  princess  whom  Theodore 
Lascaris  had  espoused.  In  the  usual  progress  of 
euch  usurpation  as  the  Eastern  Empire  had  often 
witnessed,  Palaeologus  was  first  declared  the  guardian, 
next  the  colleague,  of  his  young  sovereign;  and, 
finally,  he  was  crowned  as  sole  emperor,  and  John 
Lascaris  was  condemned  to  an  empty  title  of  honour 
and  a  harmless  obscurity.  The  personal  claims  and 
the  public  services  of  PalaBologus  might  extenuate  his 
conduct  in  thus  seizing  the  sceptre;  but  the  guilt  of 
his  usurpation  was  subsequently  deepened  by  an  act 
of  unpardonable  cruelty  toward  his  unfortunate  pupil; 
and  in  order  that  Lascaris  might  be  for  ever  incapaci- 
tated from  reigning,  he  was  deprived  of  his  eyesight 
by  command  of  his  jealous  oppressor.* 

It  was  in  the  second  year  of  the  reign  of  the 
vigorous  usurper,  that  the  success  of  a  desultory  and 
almost  an  accidental  enterprise  terminated  the  feeble 
existence  of  the  Latin  Empire  of  the  East.  Since  the 
death  of  John  de  Brienne,  his  son-in-law  and  colleague 
Baldwin  II.,  upon  whom  the  sole  sovereignty  de- 
volved, had  proved  himself  utterly  incapable  of  de- 
fending his  throne ;  and  had  spent  a  lesser  portion  of 
his  nominal  reign  of  twenty-five  years  in  the  Eastern 
capital,  than  in  traversing  Western  Europe  with  vain 
supplications  for  pecuniary  and  military  aid,  and  in 

*  Gibbon,  ubi  suprd.,  ch.  Ixii. 


358       THE  LAST  FOUR  CRUSADES. 

exposing  to  public  scorn  his  necessities  and  his  weak- 
ness.* As  the  catastrophe  of  his  inglorious  fortunes 
approached,  he  slumbered  in  his  palace,  neither  con 
scious  of  the  imminence  of  his  danger,  nor  prepared 
for  one  generous  effort  of  despair.  The  repulse  of  an 
attack  by  Palaeologus  in  person  upon  the  suburbs  of 
Constantinople,  in  the  preceding  year,  might  indeed 
have  awakened  him  to  the  designs  of  that  active  and 
ambitious  enemy.  But  such  was  the  blind  security 
of  his  government,  that  the  squadron  of  galleys  which 
the  Venetians  maintained  in  their  Byzantine  colony  was 
suffered  to  carry  away  the  flower  of  the  French  chivalry 
on  a  rash  maritime  expedition  into  the  Euxine,  at  the 
very  juncture  when  a  body  of  the  Greek  troops  was 
hovering  about  the  gates  of  the  capital.  The  com- 
mander of  this  hostile  force  was  Alexius  Strategopulus, 
the  favourite  lieutenant  of  the  Emperor  Michael,  upon 
whom  that  prince  had  bestowed  the  title  of  Caesar,  and 
who  now  amply  justified  the  confidence  of  his  sove- 
reign. By  his  knowledge  of  the  weakness  of  the 
Latin  garrison,  and  of  the  disposition  of  the  inhabi- 

*  His  two  mendicant  visits  to  England  are  noticed  by  the  Monk 
of  St.  Alban's,  p.  396,  637.  In  the  first,  he  was  first  repelled  with 
insult  for  presuming  to  land  without  permission,  and  afterward,  on 
explanation,  received  and  dismissed  by  Henry  III.  with  a  charitable 
collection  of  some  seven  hundred  marks.  In  the  second,  he  is  con- 
temptuously numbered  by  our  uncourtly  monk'  as  pauper,  profugus, 
inglorious,  &c.  (a  beggar,  a  vagabond,  and  a  craven,)  among  the 
herd  of  princely  beggars  who  were  attracted  to  England,  by  the  weak 
partiality  of  Henry  III.  for  foreigners,  to  prey  upon  his  liberality. 


LATIN    EMPIRE    OF    THE    EAST  359 

tants,  he  was  encouraged  to  attempt  the  surprise  of 
Constantinople.  He  was  assisted  by  the  concert  or 
the  favour  of  the  native  Greek  population;  by  the 
hatred  which  the  Genoese  settlers  bore  to  their 
Venetian  rivals;  by  the  cowardice  of  Baldwin;  and 
by  the  general  terror  of  the  Latins.  His  troops  were 
secretly  admitted  into  the  heart  of  the  city,  before 
their,  presence  was  discovered;  at  the  first  alarm 
Baldwin,  escaping  from  his  palace,5* sought  safety  on 
board  the  returning  squadron  from  the  Euxine,  which 
arrived  only  in  time  to  protect  his  flight  to  Italy;  and 
the  Greeks  of  Constantinople  joyfully  hailed  the  de- 
liverance of  their  capital  from  a  subjection  of  fifty- 
seven  years  to  the  Latin  yoke.*  [A.  D.  1261.] 

The  Emperor  Michael  Palaeologus  hastened  to 
make  his  triumphant  entry  into  the  ancient  and  re- 
covered seat  of  the  empire  of  his  nation ;  and  the 
remainder  of  his  reign  was  laboriously  occupied  in 
securing  his  dominion  against  the  vengeance  or  am- 
bition of  the  Latin  Powers.  From  his  fugitive  rival 
Baldwin,  in  person,  he  had,  indeed,  little  to  dread ; 
and  that  craven  prince  closed  his  worthless  life  in  an 
indigent  exile.  But  his  empty  offers  had  meanwhile 
seduced  tho  cupidity  of  Charles  of  Anjou,  king  of  the 
Sicilies,  to  bestow  a  daughter  upon  his  son  Philip  as 
the  heir  to.  the  titular  diadem  of  the  East,  and  to  un- 
dertake the  recon quest  and  partition  of  the  Greek 

*  Du  Cange,  Hist.  Constant,  lib.  iv.  v.  ad  c.  33. 


360  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

Empire.  The  mingled  prudence  and  good  fortune  of 
PalaBologus  defeated  this  design.  His  measures  to 
conciliate  the  papacy  by  an  acknowledgment  of  its 
spiritual  supremacy,  and  a  union  of  the  Greek  and 
Latin  churches,  belong  to  ecclesiastical  history,  as 
does  also  his  success  in  averting  a  formidable  invasion 
of  his  dominions  by  the  French  chivalry  under 
Charles  of  Anjou,  through  the  subsidies  with  which 
he  supported  the  revolt  of  Sicily  against  that  prince. 
The  domestic  reign  of  Palseologus  was  disturbed  by  a 
cruel  persecution  of  his  reluctant  subjects,  to  enforce 
their  submission  to  the  papal  authority ;  which,  as  his 
own  insincerity  in  that  cause  was  notorious,  rendered 
his  hypocritical  policy  the  more  atrocious.  [A.  D.  1282.] 
On  his  death,  after  a  memorable  reign  of  twenty-three 
years,  of  which  the  last  nine  had  been  shared  by  his 
son  Andronicus,  the  dissolution  of  the  hollow  union  of 
the  two  churches  was  indignantly  demanded  by  the 
unanimous  voice  of  the  Greek  clergy  and  people,  and 
proclaimed  by  the  willing  or  constrained  assent  of  the 
surviving  emperor.  Of  that  prince,  the  long  and 
inglorious  reign,  succeeding  to  a  period  of  compara- 
tive vigour,  may  be  said  to  open  a  new  period  of  de- 
cline in  the  Byzantine  annals,  which  will  hereafter 
lead  us  to  survey  the  last  agrny  and  tall  if  the  Greek 
Empire.* 


*  Du  Cange,  Hist.  Const,  lib.  v.  c.  34 ;    r  «d  c.  1  * "  »*  t»t  •«•!,  ch.  Ixii. 


THE    FIFTH    CRUSADE. 


361 


SECTION  H. 


THE   FIFTH   CRUSADE. 


MEANWHILE,  having  pursued 
to  its  catastrophe  that  great 
and  singular  episode  in  the 
history  of  the  Crusades  which 
was  produced  by  the  diver- 
sion of  the  Latin  arms  to  the 
siege  of  Constantinople,  we 
may  here  with  propriety  re- 
sume our  general  narrative 
of  the  progress  of  those  Chris- 
tian efforts  for  the  recovery 
of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  which 
had  been  interrupted  by  the 


362  THE    LAST    FOUR     CRUSADES. 

conquest  of  the  Byzantine  Empire  [A.  D.  1204.] 
While  the  cupidity  and  ambition  of  the  leaders  of  the 
Fourth  Crusade  seduced  them  to  employ  in  that  enter- 
prise the  forces  which  Pope  Innocent  III.  had  designed 
for  the  relief  of  Palestine,  the  state  of  the  Moham- 
medan Empire  justified  his  reproach,  that  their  dis- 
obedience had  ruined  the  fairest  occasion  of  re-esta- 
blishing the  Christian  fortunes  in  that  country.  By 
continued  dissensions  among  the  princes  of  the  house 
of  Saladin  and  the  emirs  who  struggled  for  inde- 
pendence, the  Mussulman  power  in  Syria  was  re- 
duced to  its  lowest  ebb ;  and  a  dreadful  famine  and 
consequent  pestilence  in  Egypt  would  effectually  have 
paralyzed  all  opposition  from  that  dangerous  quarter 
to  the  success  of  the  crusading  arms.  The  hopes  ex- 
cited for  the  Christian  cause  by  the  division  and 
weakness  of  its  enemies,  were  completely  lost  in  the 
diversion  of  the  Fourth  Crusade  against  the  Eastern 
Empire;  and  a  truce  for  six  years  with  Saphadin  wa? 
the  only  advantage  derived  by  the  Latins  on  the 
Syrian  coast  from  the  distresses  and  alarm  of  the  infi- 
dels. During  this  interval  of  repose,  the  titular  crown 
of  Jerusalem  devolved,  by  the  death  of  Almeric  and 
his  queen  Isabella,  upon  Mary,  her  daughter  by  a 
prior  marriage  with  Conrad  of  Tyre;  and  the  clergy 
and  barons  of  Palestine  delegating  to  Philippe-Auguste 
of  France  the  choice  of  a  husband  for  the  young  heir- 
ess, that  monarch  named  John,  son  of  the  Count  de 
Brienne,  as  an  accomplished  and  distinguished  knight 


THE    FIFTH    CRUSADE.'  3G3 

who  was  worthy  of  sharing,  and  capable  of  defending, 
her  throne.  [A.  D.  1210.]  Having  accepted  the 
proffered  honour,  John  de  Brienne  arrived  in  Pales- 
tine, and  received  the  hand  of  Mary  with  the  royal 
title.* 

Soon  after  this  event,  on  the  expiration  of  the  truce 
with  Saphadin,  the  peace  of  Palestine  was  broken,  less 
by  the  ambition  of  the  Mussulman  prince,  than  by  a 
rash  refusal  to  renew  the  treaty  with  him,  which  had 
apparently  been  dictated  in  the  Christian  councils  by 
the  anticipation  of  powerful  aid  from  France.  But 
the  new  King  of  Jerusalem  brought  with  him  from 
Europe  only  a  slender  train  of  three  hundred  knights; 
though  his  personal  prowess  in  the  fields  of  Palestine 
sustained  his  previous  reputation,  his  most  strenuous 
efforts  to  withstand  the  progress  of  the  infidels  were 
ineffectual;  and  he  was  reduced  to  address  to  Pope 
Innocent  IIT.  a  pressing  solicitation  for  succour,  as  the 
only  means  of  saving  from  destruction  the  poor  re- 
mains of  the  Latin  kingdom.  Although  Innocent 
had  already  engaged  in  an  object  of  nearer  and  deeper 
interest  to  the  papal  supremacy — the  extirpation  of 
the  alleged  heresy  of  the  Albigenses — he  was  not  un- 
moved by  the  danger  of  the  Christian  cause  in  Pales- 
tine; and  he  immediately  and  earnestly  answered  the 
appeal  of  John  de  Brienne  by  proclaiming  throughout 


*  Abulfeda,  lib.  iv.  p.  182-194.      Contin.  Will  Tyr.  (in  Martenne 
Vet.  Scrip.  Coll.  vol.  v.)  p.  646-668. 


364  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES 


William  Lonyespee,  Earl  of  Salisbury. 

Europe  a  new  Crusade  to  the  East.  He  not  only  de- 
spatched a  circular  letter  to  all  the  princes  of  Chris- 
tendom, in  which  they  were  urged,  by  the  usual 
arguments,  to  embark  in  the  sacred  enterprise,  but  he 
instructed  his  legates  and  the  clergy  in  every  country 
of  the  West  to  add  their  spiritual  exhortations  to  the 
laity  in  the  same  cause.  To  give  the  greater  unity 
and  solemnity  to  the  design,  a  general  council  of  the 
church — the  fourth  of  Lateran — was  at  the  same 
time  convened;*  and  by  that  assembly,  in  which 


*  Contin.  Will.  Tyr.  p.  668-680.     Matthew  Paris,  (Ed.  Watte, 
1684,)  j.  228,  229.     Labbe,  Concilia,  vol.  ii.  p.  119-233. 


THE    FIFTH    CRUSADE.  365 

all  the  principal  monarchs  of  Christendom  were  re< 
presented  by  their  envoys,  the  Design  of  arming 
Europe  anew  against  the  Eastern  infidels  was  zealously 
adopted. 

The  FIFTH  CRUSADE,  the  result  of  this  resolution, 
was  divided  in  the  sequel  into  three  maritime  expe- 
ditions :  [A.  D.  1216 ;]  the  first  consisting  principally 
of  Hungarians  under  their  king,  Andrew;  the  second 
composed  of  Germans,  Italians,  French,  and  English 
nobles  and  their  followers;  and  the  third  led  by  the 
Emperor  Frederic  II.  in  person.  Of  each  of  these 
enterprises,  none  of  which  were  attended  with  many 
novel  or  interesting  features,  the  events  may  be  briefly 
distinguished  and  dismissed.  Though  the  King  of 
Hungary  was  attended  by  the  flower  of  a  nation 
which,  before  its  conversion  to  Christianity,  had  been 
the  scourge  and  terror  of  Western  Europe,  the  arms 
of  that  monarch,  even  aided  by  the  junction  of  nume- 
rous German  crusaders  under  the  Dukes  of  Austria 
and  Bavaria,  performed  nothing  worthy  of  notice: 
and  after  a  single  campaign  in  Palestine,  in  which 
the  Mussulman  territories  were  ineffectually  ravaged, 
the  fickle  Andrew  deserted  the  cause,  and  returned 
with  his  forces  to  Europe.  His  defection  did  not 
prevent  the  Duke  of  Austria,  with  the  German  cru- 
saders, from  remaining,  in  concert  with  the  King 
of  Jerusalem,  his  barons,  and  the  knights  of  the 
three  religious  orders,  for  the  defence  of  Palestine; 
and,  in  the  following  year,  the  constancy  of  these 


366  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

faithful  champions  of  the  Cross  was  rewarded  by 
the  arrival  of  numerous  reinforcements  from  Ger 
many.* 

This  accession  of  strength  .gave  a  new  energy  and 
direction  to  the  Christian  councils;  and  it  was  re- 
solved to  change  the  scene  of  warfare  from  the  narrow 
limits  of  the  Syrian  shore  to  the  coast  of  Egypt. 
Several  motives  impelled  the  crusaders  to  this  reso- 
lution; the  wealth'  of  the  latter  country,  which 
tempted  their  greediness  of  spoil;  the  dispiriting  im- 
pression of  repeated  failures  in  direct  assaults  upon 
the  Mussulman  power  from  the  Christian  garrisons  of 
Palestine ;  and  a  conviction — which  calamitous  expe- 
rience alone  had  forced  upon  so  rude  an  age  of  war- 
fare, but  which  a  j  uster  appreciation  of  the  principles 
of  martial  science  will  confirm — that,  in  a  military 
sense,  Egypt,  by  its  position  and  resources,  is  the  key 
of  Syria.  By  the  conquest  of  Egypt,  therefore,  it  was 
believed  that  the  true  seat  of  the  Mussulman  powerf 
must  be  overthrown,  and  the  recovery  of  Jerusalem 
effected ;  and  the  situation  of  Damietta,  at  the  mouth 


*  Cont.  Will.  Tyr.  p.  680,  681.  Abulfeda,  p.  260-263.  Jacobus 
a  Vitriaco,  Hist.  Hierosol.  (in  Gestis  Dei  per  Francos,}  p.  1129—1131. 
Bernardus  Thesaur.  (apud  Muratoria,  Scrip.  Rer.  Ital.  vol.  ii)  p.  820- 
822.  Matthew  Paris,  p.  244,  245.  Godefridus  Monachus,  Annalc* 
(apud  Freher  Marguard,  Rer.  German.  Scriptores,  vol.  i.  Ed.  Tertia, 
1718,)  p.  384-387. 

f  Matthew  Paris  ascribes  the  design  of  carrying  the  war  mt<j 
Egypt  to  the  advice  of  Pope  Innocent  III. 


THE    FIFTH    CRUSADE.  367 

of  the  Nile,  pointed  out  that  city  as  the  first  object  01 
attack.* 

The  short  passage  from  Acre  to  the  Egyptian  coast 
was  effected  by  sea;  and  the  crusading  army,  being 
safely  landed  under  the  walls  of  Damietta,  imme- 
diately formed  the  siege  of  the  place.  [A.  D.  1218.] 
In  a  furious  assault  from  the  galleys  of  the  crusaders 
upon  a  castle  in  the  river  which  defended  the  port, 
the  Duke  of  Austria  and  the  flower  of  the  Christian 
knighthood  were  completely  repulsed;  but  the  walls 
of  a  tower  were  so  shattered  by  the  engines  of  the 
besiegers,  that  the  garrison  of  the  castle  were  terrified 
into  a  surrender.  The  hopes  with  which  this  first 
success  inspired  the  Christians  were  shortly  increased 
to  the  highest  degree,  by  intelligence  of  the  death  of 
their  most  formidable  enemy,  the  Sultan  Saphadin ; 
and  by  the  opportune  and  successive  arrival  of  new 
bands  of  crusaders  from  Italy,  France,  and  England, 


*  The  Monk  of  Cologne  describes  in  a  remarkable  passage  the 
jommercial  wealth  and  importance  of  Damietta : — "  Hac  via  exeunt 
naves  cum  speciebus  oneratae,  venientes  ab  India,  et  tendentes  versus 
Syriam,  Antiocham,  Armeniam,  Graeciam  et  Cyprum ;  et  ab  hoc  tran- 
situ  Rex  Babyloniae  maximos  recepit  reditus.  Haec  civitas  quasi 
caput  et  clavis  est  totius  ^Egypti;  praecellit  enim  in  munitione 
Babyloniam,  Alexandriam,  Tanaim  (?)  et  cunctas  civitates  JEgypti. 
Godefridus  Monachus,  p.  388.  (Ships  laden  with  spices  (from 
India,)  and  proceeding  toward  Syria,  Antioch,  Armenia,  Greece,  and 
Cyprus,  pass  out  by  this  way;  and  the  king  of  Babylon  receives 
great  returns  by  this  route.  This  city  is,  as  it  were,  both  the  head 
and  the  key  of  all  Egypt;  for  it  far  surpasses  in  strength  Babylon, 
Alexandria,  and  every  other  city  of  Egypt.) 


368  THE     LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

headed  respectively  by  the  papal  legates,  by  the 
Counts  of  Nevers  and  La  Marche,  and  by  the  Earls 
of  Salisbury,  Arundel,  and  Chester.  But  these  nume- 
rous accessions  of  force  served  only  to  augment  the 
blind  confidence  of  the  besiegers,  and  to  introduce  dis- 
union and  discord  into  their  camp,  through  the  jealous 
and  conflicting  pretensions  of  so  many  chieftains  of 
various  nations.  The  intrigues  of  the  papal  legates  to 
arrogate  to  themselves  the  general  direction  of  the 
host,  fomented,  instead  of  healing,  these  dissensions; 
and  while  the  unexpected  desperation  with  which  the 
defence  of  the  city  was  protracted,  converted  the  pre- 
sumption of  the  crusaders  into  anxiety  and  despond- 
ence, the  usual  horrors  of  famine  and  pestilence  com- 
pleted their  distress.  At  length  the  still  heavier 
pressure  of  similar  calamities  within  the  walls  of 
Damietta  utterly  exhausted  the  strength  of  its  de- 
fenders; out  of  a  population  of  near  fourscore  thou- 
sand souls,  nine-tenths  had  perished  of  disease  and 
hunger;  [A. D.  1219;]  and  after  a  siege  of  seventeen 
months,  the  assailants  forced  their  way  into  a  city, 
which  was  filled  only  with  the  dead  and  the  dying.* 

*  Oont.  Will.  Tyr.  p.  682-688.  Abulfeda,  p.  264-271.  Jac.  a 
Vitriaco,  p.  1131-1134,  &c.  Godefridus,  p.  387-391.  Bernard^ 
p.  822-838.  Matt.  Paris,  p.  253-259.  This  last  writer  gives  a  long 
and  particular  account  of  the  siege  of  Damietta,  and  of  the  operations 
before  the  place.  He  draws  a  harrowing  picture  of  the  effects  of  the 
pestilence  in  Damietta,  and  exhibits  a  power  of  description  which  will 
bear  no  unfavourable  comparison  with  more  celebrated  historical  pas- 
sages on  the  same  horrid  theme. 


THE    FIFTH    CRUSADE.  369 

Both  during  the  siege  and  after  the  capture  of 
Damietta,  the  invasion  of  Egypt  had  filled  the  infidels 
with  consternation;  and  the  alarm  which  was  be- 
trayed in  their  counsels  proved  that  the  crusaders,  in 
choosing  that  country  for  the  theatre  of  operations, 
had  assailed  the  Mussulman  power  in  its  most  vital 
and  vulnerable  point.  Of  the  two  sons  of  Saphadin, 
Coradinus  and  Camel,  who  were  now  uneasily  seated 
on  the  thrones  of  Damascus  and  Cairo,  the  former,  in 
despair  of  preserving  Jerusalem,  had  already  de- 
molished its  fortifications;  and  the  brothers  agreed  in 
repeatedly  offering  the  cession  of  the  holy  city  and  of 
all  Palestine  to  the  Christians,  upon  the  simple  con- 
dition of  their  evacuating  Egypt.  Every  object  which 
had  been  ineffectually  proposed  in  repeated  Crusades, 
since  the  fatal  battle  of  Tiberias,  might  now  have 
been  gloriously  obtained  by  the  acceptance  of  these 
terms;  and  the  King  of  Jerusalem,  the  French  and 
English  leaders,  and  the  Teutonic  knights,  all  eagerly 
desired  to  embrace  the  offer  of  the  sultans.  But  the 
obstinate  ambition  and  cupidity  of  the  surviving  papal 
legate,  Cardinal  Pelagius,  of  the  Italian  chieftains, 
and  of  the  knights  of  the  other  two  religious  orders, 
by  holding  out  the  rich  prospect  of  the  conquest  and 
plunder  of  Egypt,  overruled  every  wise  and  temperate 
argument  in  the  Christian  councils,  and  produced  a 
rejection  of  all  compromise  with  the  infidels.  After  a 
winter  of  luxurious  inaction,  the  legate  led  the  cru- 
sading host  from  Damietta  toward  Cairo;  [A.D.  122ti ;] 


370       THE  LAST  FOUR  CRUSADES. 

but  the  infidels  had  employed  the  interval  in  vigorous 
preparation  for  a  renewal  of  hostilities;  the  whole 
Mussulman  force  of  Egypt  and  Syria  was  collected 
under  Camel  to  oppose  the  Christian,  advance  up  the 
Nile  ;*  and  the  cardinal  legate  showed  himself  as  in- 
capable of  conducting  the  war  as  he  had  been  clamor- 
ous foe  its  prosecution.  While  he  hesitated  to  attack 
the  sultan's  army  which  obstructed  the  road  to  Cairo, 
and  suffered  the  infidels  to  straiten  his  quarters,  the 
Nile  rose;  the  Egyptians,  by  opening  the  sluices  in 
the  canal  of  Ashmoum,  inundated  the  Christian 
camp;*  and  the  crusaders  found  themselves  suddenly 
enclosed  on  all  sides  by  the  waters  and  the  enemy. 
In  this  calamitous  situation,  which  equally  precluded 
their  further  advance  or  their  retreat  to  Damietta, 
there  remained  only  the  choice  of  extermination  by 
hunger,  the  elements,  and  the  sword,  or  the  disgrace- 
ful alternative  of  purchasing  a  peace,  which  they  had 
lately  refused  to  sell,  by  the  surrender  of  Damietta. 
The  legate,  therefore,  sent  a  suppliant  embassy  to  the 

*  A.  curious  letter  in  Matthew  Paris  from  an  English  crusading 
knight,  Philip  <T  Aubeney,  to  the  Earl  of  Chester,  (who  had  returned 
home  after  the  capture  of  Damietta,)  rates  the  force  of  the  Christian 
army  which  advanced  up  the  Nile  at  a  thousand  knights,  five  thou- 
wnd  other  cavalry,  and  forty  thousand  foot,  p.  264. 

f  The  letter  last  quoted  states  that  the  water  reached  "  usque  ad 
braccarios  et  cinctoria,  ad  magnam  nuseriam  et  dolorein,"  (up  to 
their  hips  and  waists,  causing  great  discomfort  and  pain.)  And 
another  letter  from  the  Grand-Master  of  the  Templars,  which  imme- 
diately follows,  quaintly  describes  the  army  as  enclosed  by  the  waters, 
"  sicut  piscis  red  includitur,"  (like  as  a  fish  enclosed  in  a  net.) 


THE    FIFTH    CRUSADE.  371 

Mussulman  camp  with  an  offer  of  this  price  for  per- 
mission to  evacuate  Egypt  in  safety ;  and  the  Sultan 
of  Cairo  acceded  to  the  prayer.  The  King  of  Jeru- 
ealem  himself  became  a  hostage  for  the  performance 
of  the  treaty;  a  free  retreat  to  Damietta  was  allowed 
to  the  humbled  and  perishing  remnant  of  the  crusad- 
ing host ;  and,  on  their  embarkation,  that  city  was 
delivered  up  to  the  infidels.  The  King  of  Jerusalem, 
with  his  barons  and  the  knights  of  the  three  religious 
orders,  then  sailed  to  Acre;  and  the  rest  of  the  cru- 
saders, assuming  the  failure  of  the  Egyptian  war  for  a 
sufficient  discharge  from  their  vows,  gladly  separated 
from  their  eastern  .Brethren,  and  retraced  their  home- 
ward voyage  to  the  shores  of  Europe.* 

Amid  the  sorrow  and  indignation  excited  throughout 
Europe  by  the  abortive  and  disgraceful  result  of  so 
hopeful  an  enterprise,  its  calamitous  issue  was  loudly 
attributed  by  the  crusaders,  not  without  justice,  to  the 
presumption  and  incapacity  of  the  legate  Pelagius. 
But  the  new  pope,  Honorius  III.,  laboured  to  trans- 
fer the  public  reproach  from  his  servant  upon  the 
Emperor  Frederic  IT.,  by  charging  to  that  monarch's 
continued  evasion  of  repeated  vows  to  join  the  Cru- 
sade, all  the  disasters  which  his  presence  in  the  East 
might  have  prevented.  Frederic,  however,  was  deaf 
to  the  papal  censures,  until  an  occasion  was  afforded 


*  Cont.  Will.  Tyr.  p.  689-694.     Abulfeda,  p.  298-308.     Bernar 
dus,  p.  839-844.     Matt.  Paris,  uli  suprd.     Godefridus,  p,  392, 


372 


THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES, 


Emperor  Frederic  II. 

to  Honorius  of  stimulating  his  zeal  by  the  arrival 
from  Palestine  of  Herman  de  Saltza,  grand-master  of 
the  Teutonic  knights,  with  a  proposal  for  the  mar- 
riage of  the  emperor  with  lolanta,  daughter  and 
heiress  of  John  de  Brienne :  who,  wearied  of  the  inei- 
fectual  struggle  against  the  infidels,  was  willing  to 


THE    FIFTH    CRUSADE.  373 

abdicate  in  her  favour  his  titular  crown  of  Jerusalem 
The  ambition  of  Frederic  was  dazzled  by  the  prospect 
of  adding  this  new,  though  little  more  than  nominal 
honour  to  his  other  dignities ;  and  the  young  princess 
being  brought  to  Italy  by  her  father,  the  emperor  re- 
ceived her  hand,  and  with  it,  for  her  dower,  a  solemn 
transfer  from  John  of  his  rights  to  the  sovereignty  of 
the  Holy  Land.  As  a  condition  of  this  renuncia- 
tion, Frederic  on  his  part  had  previously  engaged  his 
honour  to  the  pope  and  the  grand-master  of  the  mili- 
tary orders,  [A.  D.  1225,]  that  he  would  within  two 
years  lead  a  powerful  army  to  Palestine,  to  achieve 
the  reconquest  of  his  new  kingdom.  The  real  or 
pretended  impediments  which  for  five  years  delayed 
his  fulfilment  of  this  pledge;  his  quarrel  with  the 
papacy  and  excommunication  by  Gregory  IX.,  the 
successor  of  Honorius ;  and  his  final  departure  for  the 
Holy  Land,  while  still  labouring  under  that  sentence, 
and  in  defiance  of  the  hostility  of  the  pontiff;  all  be- 
long to  the  history  of  Italy,  and  must  be  sought  in 
the  annals  of  that  country. 

The  slender  force  with  which  Frederic  embarked 
for  Palestine,  in  a  squadron  of  only  twenty  galleys, 
seemed  so  inadequate  to  the  maintenance  of  his  dig- 
nity, and  the  object  of  his  voyage,  as  to  excite  the 
wonder  of  his  own  age  at  the  attempt ;  and  the  causes 
of  his  subsequent  and  rapid  success,  amid  every 
obstacle  which  the  pope  with  unrelenting  enmity  con- 
tinued shamelessly  to  oppose  to  his  enterprise,  must 


374       THE  LAST  FOUR  CRUSADES. 

still  be  numbered  among  the  unsolved  problems  of 
history,*  The  Mussulman  power,  indeed,  was  now 
weakened  by  the  fraternal  dissensions  of  the  Sultans 
of  Cairo  and  Damascus;  [A.  D.  1228 ;]  and  it  has  been 
conjectured  that  Frederic,  from  the  outset  of  his  ex- 
pedition, trusted  to  the  effects  of  secret  negotiations 
with  the  former  of  those  potentates.  But  the  death 
of  his  brother  soon  relieved  Camel  from  the  jealousy 
or  dread  with  which  the  ambition  of  Coradinus  had 
inspired  him;  and  Frederic  had  thenceforth  to  con- 
tend with  the  undivided  hostility  of  the  Mussulman 
Empire.  Meanwhile,  he  was  deserted  by  the  flower 
of  the  Christian  chivalry  in  Palestine,  and  his  weak- 
ness was  betrayed  to  the  infidels.  The  pope  not  only 
prohibited  the  knights  of  the  religious  orders  from 
serving  under  the  banners  of  an  excommunicated 
prince,  but  actually  despatched  envoys  to  the  sultan 
to  dissuade  him  from  negotiating  with  a  leader  whom 
the  Christians  disowned.  Undismayed  by  this  ini- 
quitous persecution,  which  perhaps,  more  than  any 
event  of  the  times,  exposes  the  unprincipled  policy  of 
the  Papal  See,  Frederic  boldly  took  the  field  against 
the  infidels.  The  Knights  Templars  and  Hospitallers 
obeyed  the  prohibition  of  the  pope,  until  their  natural 
thirst  for  enterprise,  or  a  generous  sense  of  shame, 
induced  them  first  to  follow  his  march,  and  finally,  to 

*The  Monk  of  St.  Alban's  can  account  for  the  astonishing  success 
of  Frederic  only  by  the  direct  interposition  of  Heaven  in  exciting 
dissensions  "in  gentibus  Saracenis,"  (among  the  Saracenic  races.) 


THE    FIFTH    CRUSADE.  375 

co-operate  indirectly  with  the  force  which  acknow- 
ledged his  command.  But  the  national  affections  of 
the  Teutonic  knights  had  more  effectually  and  un- 
scrupulously prevailed  over  their  dread  of  papal  cen- 
sures; and  at  their  head,  with  the  scanty  force  of  hia 
own  soldiery,  the  emperor  advanced  from  Acre, 
occupied  and  refortified  Jaffa,  and  approached  Jeru- 
salem. At  this  juncture,  and  without  any  signal 
defeat  of  the  infidels,  or  any  explicable  motive  on  the 
part  of  the  sultan  for  concessions  so  important,  we 
are  surprised  by  the  authentic  record  of  a  treaty,  by 
which  free  access  to  the  Holy  City,  together  with  the 
possession  of  Bethlehem,  Nazareth,  and  other  places, 
was  restored  to  the  Christians,  and  a  peace  for  ten 
years  was  concluded  between  them  and  the  Moslems. 
To  signalize  the  acquisition  of  these  honourable  terms, 
Frederic  resolved  to  celebrate  his  coronation  at  Jeru- 
salem. Under  a  plea  that  he  still  remained  excom- 
municate, the  patriarch  refused  to  perform,  and  the 
Templars  and  Hospitallers  to  attend,  the  ceremony ; 
but,  accompanied  by  the  Teutonic  knights  and  the 
officers  of  his  train,  the  emperor  entered  the  Holy 
City,  proceeded  to  the  Church  of  the  Sepulchre,  and 
himself  taking  the  crown  from  the  altar,  placed  it  on 
his  head.*  [A.  D.  1229.]  Immediately  after  this  act, 

*  Abulfeda,  p.  336-353.  Matt.  Paris,  p.  300-304.  Godefridus, 
p.  396-397.  But  the  most  interesting  account  of  Frederic's  pro- 
ceedings is  given  in  a  letter  from  himself  to  Henry  III.  of  England 
in  Matt.  Paris,  p.  300,  301. 


376  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

the  state  of  affairs  in  Italy  warning  him  of  the  neces- 
sity of  his  presence  in  that  country,  he  returned  to 
Acre,  and  there  embarked  for  Europe, — having 
brought  the  Fifth  Crusade  to  a  successful  conclusion, 
and  obtained  for  the  Christian  cause  in  Palestine  more 
than  the  arms  of  any  other  prince  had  been  able  to 
achieve  since  the  conquest  of  Jerusalem  by  Saladin.* 

These  valuable  fruits  of  the  emperor's  daring  and 
ability  were,  by  the  mere  wanton  insolence  or  veno- 
mous hostility  of  faction,  immediately  neglected,  and 
ultimately  lost.  The  return  of  Frederic  to  Europe 


*  It  is  difficult  to  determine  what  were  the  real  conditions  on 
which  Frederic  obtained  access  for  the  Christians  to  Jerusalem.  The 
papal  party  laboured  to  deny  that  he  had  redeemed  the  Holy  Sepul- 
chre from  the  hands  of  the  infidels ;  and  a  letter  from  the  Patriarch 
of  Jerusalem,  (also  in  Matt.  Paris,)  among  other  charges,  accuses  him 
of  having  left  the  sacred  places  in  their  possession.  But  the  invete- 
rate hostility  which  the  Patriarch,  the  Templars  and  Hospitallers,  and 
other  papal  adherents  in  Palestine,  as  well  as  in  Europe,  bore  to 
Frederic,  is  sufficient  to  deprive  their  statements  of  all  credit;  and 
his  own  public  letter  declares  expressly  that  the  Saracens  were  only 
to  have  the  liberty  of  visiting  the  Temple  of  Solomon  as  pilgrims  and 
unarmed,  and  adding,  "  civitatem  Hierusalem,  sicut  melius  unquam 
fuit,  resedificare  uobis  liceat  secundum  pactum" — (we  are  allowed  by 
treaty  to  rebuild  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  so  that  it  shall  be  better  than 
it  ever  was.)  He  farther  states,  that  he  had  given  orders  accordingly 
for  the  rebuilding  of  the  towers  and  walls  of  the  Holy  City;  but  his 
intentions  were  evidently  frustrated  by  the  necessity  for  his  hasty  re- 
turn to  Europe ;  and  it  does  not  appear  that  any  attempt  was  made 
to  renew  them  by  the  resident  Christians  in  Palestine.  It  is  observa- 
ble, however,  that  the  Mussulman  version  of  the  treaty  in  Abulfeda 
(ubi  supra)  contains  a  stipulation  that  the  fortifications  of  Jerusalem 
should  not  be  rebuilt. 


THE    FIFTH    CRUSADE.  377 

was  the  signal  for  the  open  outbreaking  of  that  dis- 
affection to  his  person  and  authority  which  had  only 
been  repressed  through  the  awe  excited  by  his 
presence;  and  resistance  to  the  imperial  title  was 
now  made  the  convenient  pretext  for  the  revival  of 
the  same  spirit  of  internal  discord  and  intrigue  which 
had  ever  been  the  bane  of  the  Christian  fortunes  in 
Palestine.  The  Empress  lolanta  having  died  in  giv- 
ing birth  to  a  son,  the  enemies  of  Frederic  insisted 
that  her  rights  to  the  sovereignty  of  Jerusalem  haJ. 
devolved,  notwithstanding  the  existence  of  her  child 
and  the  matrimonial  title  -secured  by  treaty  to  her 
husband,  upon  her  half-sister  Alice,  daughter  of 
Isabella,  by  the  third  marriage  of  that  queen  with 
Henry  of  Champagne.  Alice,  the  widow  of  Hugh  de 
Lusignan,  king  of  Cyprus,  having  arrived  on  the 
Syrian  shore  from  that  island,  to  assert  her  title  to  the 
throne  of  Palestine,  a  furious  civil  war  commenced 
between  her  partisans  and  those  of  Frederic.  £A.  D. 
1230.]  If  the  former  were  more  numerous,  their 
advantage  was  counterbalanced  by  the  fidelity  and 
courage  with  which  the  knights  of  the  Teutonic  order 
defended  the  cause  of  their  national  monarch  until  he 
was  able  to  despatch  reinforcements  to  his  officers. 
The  revolt  of  Palestine  was  at  length  composed,  and 
the  imperial  authority  restored,  chiefly  by  the  good 
offices  of  Pope  Gregory  IX.,  during  the  hollow  recon- 
ciliation between  that  pontiff  and  Frederic,  which  had 
followed  the  arrival  of  the  latter  in  Europe.  But  the 

32* 


378  THE   LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

dissensions  of  the  Christians  had  meanwhile  prevented 
any  union  of  forces  for  their  common  security  against 
the  infidels;  no  use  had  been  made  of  the  season  of 
pacification  obtained  by  Frederic's  treaty,  to  improve 
the  defences  of  the  Holy  Land;  and  finding  the 
strength  of  the  Latin  kingdom  consumed  in  intestine 
strife,  the  independent  emirs  of  Syria  were  encouraged 
to  disclaim  any  share  in  the  peace  which  the  Sultan 
had  concluded,  and  began  to  renew  their  predatory 
hostilities  from  every  quarter.  In  one  of  these  incur- 
sions, they  surprised  and  slaughtered  a  body  of  several 
thousand  pilgrims  of  the  Cross  on  the  road  between 
Acre  and  Jerusalem ;  and  upon  another  occasion  the 
Templars,  who  arrogated  to  themselves  the  right  of 
making  war  and  peace  on  their  own  account,  were  de- 
feated in  a  campaign  against  the  emir  of  Aleppo,  with 
the  heaviest  loss  which  their  order  had  suffered  since 
the  fatal  field  of  Tiberias.* 

Every  vessel  from  the  shores  of  Syria  now  brought 
to  Europe  the  intelligence  of  some  fresh  disaster,  and 
quickened  the  public  conviction  of  Christendom  that  a 
new  Crusade  was  indispensable  for  the  succour  of  the 
Holy  Land.  At  the  Council  of  Spoleto,  the  authority 
of  the  Church  was  again  exerted  to  promulgate  the 
necessity,  and  to  command  the  preparation  of  another 
general  armament  against  the  Eastern  infidels;  and 
the  Dominican  and  Franciscan  friars  were  charged  by 

*  Sanutus,  Secreta  Fidelium  Cruc  \  lib.  iii.  pars.  xi.  c.  13.     Matt 
Paris,  p  374,  &c. 


THE    FIFTH    CRUSADE.  379 

the  pope  with  the  duty  of  preaching  the  sacred  war, 
and  of  collecting  contributions  for  its  support.  But 
the  proceedings  of  these  missionaries  neither  re- 
sponded to  the  impatience  of  the  people,  nor  to  the 
urgency  of  the  danger.  Instead  of  promoting  the 
equipment  of  the  thousands  of  warriors  who  assumed 
the  Cross  at  their  exhortations,  the  immense  sums 
which  they  obtained  for  the  service  were  either 
absorbed  into  the  papal  treasury,*  or  diverted,  in 
shameless  disregard  of  their  own  vows  of  poverty,  into 
the  coffers  of  their  orders;  and  nearly  seven  years 
were  suffered  to  elapse  without  any-  earnest  attempt 
on  the  part  of  the  pope  or  his  agents  for  the  relief  of 
Palestine.  The  expectations  of  aid  which  were  held 
out  to  the  Christians  in  the  East,  during  this  interval, 
served  only  to  hasten  the  ruin  of  their  affairs ;  for  the 
Sultan  of  Egypt,  in  rage  or  alarm  at  the  thick-coming 
rumours  of  invasion  from  Europe,  resolved  to  antici- 
pate its  object,  and  marching  an  army  into  Palestine, 
he  once  more  expelled  the  Christians  from  Jerusalem.*!' 

*  "  Nee  sciri  poterat,"  says  "  Matthew  Paris,  "  in  quam  abyssum 
tanta  pecunia,  quae  per  Papales  procurationes  colligebatur,  est  de- 
mersa,"  (nor  could  it  be  ascertained  into  what  abyss  so  great  a  sum 
of  money,  collected  by  the  papal  government,  was  plunged,)  p.  339. 

t  Labbe,  CmiciKa,  vol.  xi.  p.  481.  M»tt  Paris,  p.  337-340,  364, 
865.  Sanutus,  ubi  supra. 


380 


THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 


CHAPTER 


THE   SIXTH   CRUSADE. 


HE  news  of  this  event  com- 
pleted the  indignation  which 
the  dilatory  and  sordid  evasions 
of  the  pope  and  his  ministers 
had  long  excited  in  Europe, 
[A.  D.  1238 ;]  and  the  martial 
and  religious  enthusiasm  of  the 
Western  chivalry  was  too  ar- 
dently roused  by  the  danger 
of  the  Christian  cause  in  the 
East,  to  be  longer  restrained 
and  deluded  from  its  object  by 
the  selfish  and  avaricious  policy 


THE    SIXTH    CRUSADE.  381 

of  the  papal  court.  Despite,  therefore,  of  the  facilities, 
for  commuting  their  vows  for  gold,  the  dissuasions, 
and  even  'the  direct  prohibitions  which  were  opposed 
by  the  papal  authority  to  their  enterprise,  the  nobles 
of  France  and  England,  who  had  now  taken  the 
Cross,  were  resolved  at  once  to  proceed  to  the  Holy 
Land;  and  in  the  latter  kingdom  the  crusading 
barons,  meeting  at  Northampton,  solemnly  bound 
themselves  to  each  other  at  the  altar,  that,  lest  they 
should  be  prevented  from  their  design  by  any  pretext 
of  the' Roman  See,  or  cajoled  to  divert  their  arms  to 
the  effusion  of  Christian  blood  against  the  pope's  ene- 
mies in  Europe,  they  would  within  the  year  lead  their 
forces  direct  to  Palestine.*  The  French  Crusaders 
were  the  earliest  to  reach  the  Syrian  shores. 
Thibaud,  Count  of  Champagne — a  celebrated  Trou- 
badour, and  by  marriage  king  of  Navarre — the  Duke 
of  Burgundy,  the  Counts  of  Bretagne,  Montfort,  and 
Bar,  and  many  barons  of  distinction,  safely  landed 
with  numerous  bands  of  followers  at  Acre;  and  offen- 
sive warfare  was  immediately  commenced  against  the 
infidels,  by  an  advance  to  Ascalon.  In  this  expe- 
dition the  French  were  at  first  successful;  and  the 
Count  of  Bretagne  with  his  followers  bursting  away 
from  his  confederates  into  the  Mussulman  territory, 

*  Matt.  Paris,  p.  461-463.  "  Et  ne  per  cavlllationes  Romans 
Ecclesiaae  honestum  votum  eorum  impediretur  ....  juraverunt 
ornnes  (and  they  all  swore  that  they  would  not  be  hindered  from  ful- 
filling their  honourable  vow  by  the  cavils  of  the  Roman  Church.) 


382       THE  LAST  FOUR  CRUSADES. 


Richard,  Earl  of  Cornwall. 

and  ravaging  it  to  the  gates  of  Damascus,  safely  re- 
joined the  army  with  immense  spoil.  But  there  was 
little  concert  in  the  operations  of  the  crusaders;  and 
the  example  of  the  Breton  chivalry  soon  entailed 
upon  their  French  compeers  a  disastrous  defeat  near 
Gaza,  in  which,  during  a  similar  incursion,  the  Count 
de  Bar  and  other  lords  were  slain,  and  Amoury  de 
Montfort,  with  many  nobles  and  knights^  made  cap- 
tive. This  reverse  so  dispirited  the  king  of  Navarre, 
that  he  retreated  with  the  whole  army  to  Acre ;  and 
thence  the  French  leaders,  accusing  the  Templars  and 
Hospitallers  of  having  deserted  them  in  their  need,  for 
the  most  part  returned  to  Europe.* 

*  Sanatus,  lib.  iii.  pars    xi.  c.    15.     Matt.    Paris,  p.  474-488, 
Abulfeda,  lib.  iv.  p.  488, 489 


THE    SIXTH    CRUSADE.  383 

Such  had  been  the  abortive  result  of  the  French 
Crusade,  when  Richard,  Earl  of  Cornwall,  brother  of 
Henry  III.,  landed  at  Acre,  accompanied  by  the 
flower  of  the  English  chivalry.  The  renown  of  this 
prince  for  personal  prowess,  the  lineage  of  a  Plan* 
tagenet,  even  the  very  name  of  Richard,  which  he 
bore  in  common  with  his  uncle  of  the  Lion  Heart,* 
all  seemed  at  his  approach  to  inspire  confidence  into 
the  Christians,  and  to  strike  the  infidels  with  terror. 
On  his  arrival  in  Palestine,  he  seems  to  have  been 
placed  at  the  head  'of  the  Latin  councils  and  forces 
almost  by  acclamation;  and  the  weight  of  his  presence 
was  immediately  felt  in  the  intimidation  of  the  Mus- 
sulmans. He  found  that  the  Templars  on  the  one 
hand,  and  on  the  other  the  Hospitallers  and  French 
Crusaders,  had  concluded  discordant  treaties  with  the 
Emir  of  Karac,  a  vassal  of  the  Court  of  Damascus,  and 
with  the  Sultan  of  Cairo;  and  his  first  act  was  to  de- 

*  So  great  was  the  awe  inspired  by  the  achievements  of  Coeur  de 
Lion  in  the  East,  that,  at  the  distance  of  half  a  century,  his  dreaded 
name  was  still  used  by  Mussulman  women  to  hush  their  refractory 
children.  "Be  quiet,  be  quiet,  here  is  King  Richard  coming  to  fetch 
you."  And  if  a  horse  started  at  a  bush  or  a  shadow,  the  infidel  rider 
would  chide  his  steed  with  the  exclamation,  "What!  dost  think  King 
Kichard  is  there?"  Joinville  (Johne's  Translation,)  p.  109.  So 
also  says  Matthew  of  Westminster  of  the  respect  obtained  among  the 
Moslems  for  Richard  of  Cornwall  by  the  very  memory  of  the  name 
which  he  bore.  "  Cfeperunt  minis  prudentiam  et  potentiam  Comitis 
formidare,  turn  quia  hoc  nomen  Richardus  adhuc  Saracenis  iniruicum 
Irpsum  intitulavit,"  &c.,  p.  304.  (They  began  to  fear  greatly  the  pru- 
dence and  power  of  the  count,  also  because  the  very  name  Richard 
•till  signified  an  enemy  to  the  Saracens.) 


384       THE  LAST  FOUR  CRUSADES. 

mand  fronT  the  former  chieftain  the  fulfilment  of  a 
promise  to  release  the  Christian  captives  who  had 
been  taken  at  the  battle  of  Gaza.  On  the  hesitation 
or  inability  of  the  emir  to  restore  these  prisoners,  the 
earl  advanced  with  the  Christian  host  to  Jaffa;  and 
this  single  movement  sufficed  to  obtain  all  the  objects 
of  the  war.  Both  the  Sultans  of  Damascus  and  of 
Egypt  hastened  to  negotiate,  with  him ;  and  so  ably 
did  he  avail  himself  of  the  dissensions  between  these 
princes,  and  their  common  awe  of  his  name  and  repu- 
tation, that  he  extorted  from  one  or  both  a  solemn  and 
absolute  cession  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  greatest  part  of 
the  territory  of  which  the  Latin  kingdom,  in  its  best 
days,  had  ever  consisted.  He  had  at  the  same  time 
the  satisfaction  of  receiving  from  the  hands  of  the  in- 
fidels all  their  Christian  captives,  among  whom  were 
thirty-three  nobles,  many  Templars  and  Hospitallers, 
and  five  hundred  knights  and  other  crusaders  of 
inferior  rank.  Finally,  having  remained  in  Palestine 
until  the  banner  of  the  Cross  was  once  more  planted 
on  the  ruined  walls  of  Jerusalem,  the  Earl  of  Corn- 
wall then,  arid  not  before  the  execution  of  the  treaty, 
quitted  the  shores  of  Palestine,  and  in  his  homeward 
progress  through  the  State  of  Europe,  was  everywhere 
welcomed  with  honour  as  the  deliverer  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre.* 

*  Sanutus,  ubi  supra  et  c.  16.  Matt.  West,  p.  302-304.  Matt. 
Paris,  p.  479,  486,  511,  also  p.  503-505.  The  pages  last  quoted 
contain  the  public  despatch  of  the  Earl  of  Cornwall  himself,  giving  a 


THE    SIXTH    CRUSADE. 


385 


Frederic  IT. 

The  services  which  the  Earl  of  Cornwall  thus  ren- 
dered to  the  Christian  cause  in  Palestine  did  not,  per- 
haps, excel  in  degree,  and  closely  resembled  in  their 
form,  those  which  the  Emperor  Frederic  II.  had  ac- 
complished twelve  years,  before.  [A.  D.  1240.]  But 
the  English  prince  was  more  fortunate  than  the 
German  monarch  in  not  having  provoked  the  oppo- 
sition of  the  papal  see,  or  the  disaffection  of  the  Latin 
chieftains  of  Palestine ;  and  while  Frederic  had  been 
shunned  and  deserted  in  the  East  by  the  sworn 
champions  of  the  Cross,  and  was  basely  defrauded  of 
the  well-earned  fame  of  unassisted  success  by  the 
malice  of  his  enemies  in  Europe,  Richard  had  been 

very  clear  and  interesting  account  of  his  conduct,  and  of  the  treaty 
which  he  had  extorted  from  the  infidels 


386  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

aided  by  the  zealous  co-operation  of  the  crusading 
chivalry,  and  was  rewarded  with  the  undivided  ap- 
plause and  gratitude  of  Christendom.  The  Templars, 
indeed,  both  before  and  after  his  departure  from 
Palestine,  displayed  that  proud  and  factious  spirit  of 
contention  which  forms  the  greatest,  if  not  the  only 
just  reproach  upon  the  memory  -of  their  illustrious 
order.  To  show  their  independence,  they  had  refused 
to  become  parties  to  the  late  treaty  with  the  Sultan 
of  Egypt,  and  continued  their  hostilities  against  his 
subjects;  but  with  this  exception,  unanimity  for  once 
prevailed  in  the  Christian  councils.  While  the  patri- 
arch resumed  the  ecclesiastical  charge  of  Jerusalem, 
the  Hospitallers  undertook,  at  their  own  cost,  to  re- 
build the  fortifications  of  the  Holy  City;  and  the 
government  of  Frederic,  as  the  feudal  sovereign  of 
Palestine,  was  established  in  the  capital  of  the  king 
dom.*  But  no  leisure  was  afforded  for  the  com- 
pletion of  these  salutary  measures  of  organization  and 
defence;  and  the  recovery  of  Jerusalem  had  scarcely 
been  achieved,  before  the  feeble  Latin  kingdom  was 
once  more  and  suddenly  overwhelmed  by  the  violence 
of  one  of  those  tremendous  tempests  of  barbarian  war, 
which  have,  in  various  ages,  overcast  and  desolated 
the  face  of  Asia.  The  remote  gathering  of  the  storm, 
which  now  broke  upon  Palestine,  must  be  observed  in 
the  far  distant  plains  of  Tartary;  and  before  we 

*  Matt.  Paris,  p.  534-543. 


THE    SIXTH    CRUSADE.  387 

hasten  to  the  term  of  the  present  chapter,  we  shall  be 
led,  by  no  unnatural  connection  with  its  principal 
subject,  to  take  a  brief  survey  of  the  revolutions  of 
Asia  during  that  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
which  is  defined  by  the  commencement  and  close  of 
the  Crusades. 

Every  vicissitude  of  conquest  which  afflicted  the 
vast  continent  of  Asia  throughout  the  middle  ages, 
had  its  origin  among  those  restless  and  wandering 
tribes  which  overspread  its  central  extent  from  the 
frozen  deserts  of  Siberia  to  the  banks  of  the  Indus, 
and  from  the  shores  of  the  Caspian  to  the  frontiers  of 
China.  Under  various  appellations,  of  which  that  of 
Tartars  is  the  most  recent  and  familiar,  these  same 
pastoral  and  predatory  nations  have  at  several  periods,1 
as  often  as  some  master-spirit  has  arisen  to  impel  and 
guide  their  migrations,  burst  the  bounds  of  their  wild 
native  regions,  and  inundated  the  more  civilized  seats 
of  mankind  with  a  terrific  deluge.  From  this  source 
had  successively  swept  toward  the  West,  the  irrup- 
tions of  the  Huns  at  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire; of  the  Hungarians  five  centuries  later;  and  of 
the  Seljukian  Turcomans  in  the  following  age.  The 
establishment  of  a  great  empire,  embracing  Persia, 
Syria,  and  Asia  Minor,  by  these  Seljukian  Tartars, 
and  the  terror  which  their  successes  excited  in  the 
Greek  Emperors,  have  already  been  related  among  the 
proximate  causes  of  the  Crusades ;  and  in  the  Otto- 
man descendants  of  the  same  race,  after  the  apparent 


388       THE  LAST  FOUR  CRUSADES. 

extinction  of  its  power  and  a  long  interval  of  obscu- 
rity in  the  mountains  of  the  Lesser  Asia,  we  are  here- 
after to  discover  the  conquerors  of  Constantinople.* 
In  the  course  of  the  period  marked  by  the  Crusades, 
all  the  original  dynasties  of  the  Seljukians  were  over- 
whelmed and  utterly  obliterated  by  domestic  revo- 
lution or  foreign  violence.  On  the  aspect  of  Syria, 
indeed,  this  change  impressed  no  new  features ;  for  in 
that  country  the  Turcoman  cavalry  was  continually 
recruited  by  fresh  swarms  from  the  pristine  seats  of 
the  nation ;  and  it  was  at  the  head  of  these  kindred 
hordes  that  Sal  ad  in  founded  his  empire  on  the  com- 
mon subversion  of  the  Atabec  sovereignty  of  Damas- 
cus and  the  Fatimite  khalifate  of  Egypt.  But  in 
'Persia  and  in  Asia  Minor,  or  Roum,  the  catas- 
trophe was  more  violent;  and  the  ruin  of  the 
monarchies,  founded  by  the  Seljukians  in  those 
countries,  was  among  the  desolating  effects  of  a  new 


*  The  Kharizmians,  from  whom  the  Ottomans  are  descended,  were 
in  fact  of  the  same  race  as  the  Seljukian  Turcomans,  but  issued  two 
centuries  later  from  their  native  plains.  After  their  expulsion  from 
Persia  by  the  Moguls,  a  body  of  these  Kharizmian  Turcomans 
under  Soliman  Schah  sought  refuge  in  Asia  Minor,  and  entered  into 
the  service  of  the  Seljukian  Sultans  of  Roum  or  Iconium.  On  the 
ruin  of  that  dynasty  by  their  old  Mogul  enemies,  the  Kharizmians 
under  Othman,  the  grandson  of  their  original  leader  Soliman,  pre- 
served an  independent  existence  in  the  mountains  of  Bithynia;  the 
remains  of  the  Seljukians  were  gathered  to  the  same  standard;  and 
these  Turcoman  nations  became  blended  into  one  people,  and  known 
in  history  by  the  name  of  Ottomans  from  that  of  their  Kharizmian 
prince.  De  Guignes,  Hist.  Generate  des  Huns,  &c.}  vol.  v.  p.  328-337. 


THE    SIXTH    CRUSADE.  389 

and  mighty  irruption  from  the  farthest  recesses  of 
Tartary.* 

About  the  first  years  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the 
formidable  name  and  victorious  progress  of  a  new  con- 
queror and  nation  of  Tartarian  race  first  broke  upon 
the  astonished  world.  From  the  wide  upland  plains 
beyond  the  great  eastern  desert  which  extend  to  the 
Chinese  wall,  issued  a  race  described  as  countless  in 
number,  and  as  more  horridly  inhuman  in  aspect  and 
spirit,  and  more  utterly  devoid  of  all  civilization,  than 
any  of  the  destroyers  of  mankind  who  had  been  let 
loose  from  the  Tartarian  regions  to  desolate  the  earth. 
Their  earliest  appearance"  in  authentic  history  is 
under  the  general  term  of  Moguls;  and  under  the 
guidance  of  a  leader,  whose  proper  designation  of 
Temudgin  has  almost  been  lost  in  the  national 
title,  which  was  arrogated  for  his  grandeur,  of  Zingis 
Khan,  or  the  Mightiest  of  Lords.  He  was  the  son  of 
a  khan  who  had  reigned  over  thirteen  hordes;  and  it 
is  probable  that  the  immense  masses  of  the  same 
generic  features,  who  were  drawn  to  his  standard  by 
the  results  of  conquest  or  the  thirst  of  rapine,  derived 
their  common  term  of  Moguls  from  the  original  dis- 
tinction of  his  own  tribe.  The  early  fortunes  of  a  bar- 
barian conqueror,  the  founder  of  his  own  greatness, 

*  In  Persia  the  original  dynasty  of  the  Seljukians  had  already 
been  supplanted  by  that  of  the  Sultans  of  Korasm;  but  the  con- 
querors, as  above  observed,  were  of  kindred  Turcoman  stock.  De 
Guignes,  vol.  ii.  lib.  xiv. 


390 


THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 


Zingis  Khan. 

are  always  obscure;  the  unlettered*  traditions  of 
nomadic  savages  must  be  equally  destitute  of  authen* 
ticity  and  interest;  [A. D.  1206;]  and  we  may  at  once 
dismiss  the  tale  of  vicissitudes,  whether  fabulous  or 
real,  which  are  ascribed  to  the  youth  of  Zingis.  He 
first  burst  the  limits  of  his  native  Tartar  reign,  to  pre- 
cipitate his  myriads  upon  the  plains  of  China ;  the 
great  wall  proved  but  a  feeble  barrier  against  his 
innumerable  cavalry;  and  after  a  desolating  war- 
fare he  tore  five  great  provinces  of  the  north  from 

*  Zingis  himself  could  neither  read  nor  write,  and  it  was  not  until 
the  lapse  of  near  a  century,  that  the  traditions  of  his  life  were  col- 
lected by  order  of  a  Persian  khan,  his  great-grandson.  De  la  Croix, 
Histoire  du  Grand  Genghizcan,  (Paris,  1716,)  p.  536—539 


THE    SIXTH    CRUSADE.  391 

the    huge    but   ill-cemented   fabric   of   the   Chinese 
dominion. 

The  complete  conquest  of  that  empire  seems  only  to 
have  been  suspended  by  a  diversion  which  was  given 
to  the  Mogul  arms.  The  murder  of  his  ambassadors 
by  command  of  Mohammed,  the  Kharizim  Sultan  of 
Persia,  afforded  Zingis  a  just  cause  of  war;  and, 
traversing  the  wide  expanse  of  Tartary,  he  descended 
into  Western  Asia  at  the  head  of  an  incredible  force 
of  seven  hundred  thousand  Moguls  and  Tartars.  On 
the  great  plains  which  are  intersected  by  the  Sihon  or 
Jaxartes,  and  the  Oxus,  he  was  encountered  by  the 
Turcoman  Sultan  with  an  inferior  host  of  four  hun- 
dred thousand  men ;  and  in  the  stupendous  conflict, 
the  victorious  Moguls  slaughtered  nearly  the  half  of 
their  enemies.  This  success  laid  all  Persia  open  to 
the  destroyers ;  and,  stimulated  by  vengeance  to  even 
more  than  their  ordinary  inhumanity,  they  spread  a 
frightful  devastation,  from  the  effects  of  which  those  re- 
gions have  perhaps  never  recovered,  from  the  shores  of 
the  Caspian  to  the  banks  of  the  Indus.  [A.  D.  1224.] 
The  Sultan  Mohammed,  flying  from  the  storm  which 
he  had  provoked,  found  an  inglorious  safety  and 
obscure  death  in  one  of  the  desert  islands  of  the 
Caspian;  but  his  valiant  son  Gelaleddin,  whose  ex- 
ploits became  the  darling  theme  of  Persian  song,  still 
opposed,  with  the  remnant  of  the  Turcoman  bands,  a 
heroic  though  fruitless  resistance  to  the  progress  of 
the  victors.  In  many  a  well-sustained  combat,  hia 


392  THE   LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

long  retreat  to  the  banks  of  the  Indus  was  tracked  by 
the  blood  of  his  pursuers;  and  boldly  plunging  with 
his  steed  into  the  broad  and  rapid  current  of  that 
river,  he  was  suffered,  by  the  admiration  which  his 
prowess  extorted  from  Zingis — the  only  trait  of  gene- 
rosity in  the  recorded  actions  of  the  barbarian — to 
escape  unmolested.  The  Indus  was  for  a  season  the 
term  of  Mogul  devastation;  and,  unable  to  command 
the  further  progress  of  his  satiated  hordes,  or  recalled 
to  Tartary  by  a  revolt  of  some  chieftains,  whom  he 
easily  subjugated,  Zingis  slowly  led  back  his  myriads, 
laden  with  the  spoils  of  Persia,  to  their  native  plains. 
In  these  regions  he  shortly  closed  his  destructive 
career  by  a  natural  death,  enjoining  his  children,  as 
his  last  command,  to  complete  the  conquest  of  the 
Chinese  empire.* 

This  injunction  was  imposed  upon  a  race  to  whom 
repose  was  intolerable,  and  motion  and  rapine  the 
dearest  qualifications  of  life.  The  four  sons  of  Zingis — • 
Octai,  Toushi,  Tooti,  and  Zagatai — were  the  inheritors 
alike  of  his  wild  genius  and  expansive  dominion  ;f 


*  D'Herbelot,  Biblioiheque  Orientate,  Art.  Genghizcan,  Gelaled- 
/in.  De  la  Croix,  Hist.du  Grand  Genghizcan,  passim.  De  Guignes, 
Hist.  Gen.  des  Huns,  vol.  iv.  lib.  xv. 

•{•  "  He  had  many  other  sons,  but  these  were  the  only  princes  em- 
ployed in  great  stations,  and  destined  by  their  father  for  monarchy — • 
probably  on  account  of  their  high  descent  by  their  mother,  Burta 
Koutchin,  the  daughter  of  Zei  Nevian,  chief  of  the  tribe  of  Konharat, 
the  first  in  rank  among  the  five  principal  wives  of  Chenghiz,  all  of 
whom  were  of  high  birth. — Malcolm's  Persia,  1.  f.  p.  260.  (Note.) 


THE    SIXTH    CRUSADE.  393 

and  "with  a  spirit  of  fraternal  or  prudential  concord 
more  remarkable  than  their  native  ability,  the  latter 
three  were  satisfied  to  enjoy  dependent  sovereignties 
under  their  brother  Octai,  who  was  elevated  by  their 
consent  to  a  general  supremacy,  under  the  title  of 
Great  Khan,  over  the  Mogul  and  Tartar  nations. 
By  these  sons  of  Zingis  and  their  immediate  succes- 
sors, the  Mogul  arms  were  carried  from  the  shores  of 
the  Pacific  Ocean  to  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  the 
Danube,  and  the  Vistula;  in  little  more  than  half  a. 
century  had  conquered  or  overrun  nearly  all  Asia, 
and  no  inconsiderable  part  of  Europe;  and,  at  the 
close  of  the  period  embraced  in  this  chapter,  their 
descendants  reigned  over  China,  Tartary,  Persia, 
Russia,  and  Siberia.  The  total  subjugation  of  the 
first  of  these  countries  was  reserved  for  Kublai,  one 
of  the  grandsons  of  Zingis;  but  of  the  two  empires 
into  which  it  had  been  divided,  the  northern,  already 
dismembered  during  the  life  of  Zingis,  was  completely 
swallowed  up  in  the  Mogul  dominion  five  years  after 
his  death.  Other  enterprises  suspended  the  fate  of 
the  southern  dynasty  of  the  Chinese  for  about  forty 
years;  and  when  Kublai  had  achieved  its  fall  and 
extinction,  the  unity  of  the  Mogul  power  was  already 
broken  by  the  separation  of  its  vast  branches.  Mean- 
while, the  race  of  Zingis  were  seated  on  independent 
thrones  in  Russia,  Western  Tartary,  and  Persia,. 
Only  eight  years  after  his  death,  another  of  hib  grand- 
pons,  Batou,  was  intrusted  by  the  Great  Khan  Octai 


394  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

with  the  command  of  a  host  of  five  hundred  thousand 
Moguls,  for  the  invasion  of  Russia.  [A.  D.  1235.]  In 
the  resistless  progress  of  such  swarms,  the  princes  of 
that  devoted  land  were  overwhelmed;  the  country 
devastated,  its  capitals  of  Moscow  and  Kio  burned  to 
ashes;  the  rude  national  independence  destroyed; 
and  the  Mogul  yoke  permanently  fastened  on  the 
people  for  two  hundred  years.  With  continued  vio- 
lence the  Tartar  invasion  swept  over  Poland,  Hun- 
gary, and  the  circumjacent  regions,  from  the  shores 
of  the  Baltic*  to  those  of  the  Euxine  and  Adriatic. 
In  the  battle  of  Legnitz,  the  Duke  of  Siberia,  the 
Teutonic  Order,  and  the  Polish  Palatines  were  routed 
with  tremendous  slaughter;  [A.  D.  1242;]  in  a  single 
conflict,  the  King  of  Hungary,  Bela  IV.,  was  so 
utterly  defeated,  that  he  abandoned  his  realm  to  its 
ruin.  Amid  the  consternation  of  Christendom,  Ger- 
many, and  perhaps  all  Western  Europe,  was  only 
saved  by  the  firmness  and  energy  with  which  the 
Emperor  Frederic  II.  exhorted  its  princes  and  chi- 

*  A  singular  example  of  the  effect  of  the  Mogul  conquests  has  been 
noticed  by 'Gibbon,  from  a  passage  in  Matthew  Paris,  p.  398.  The 
destruction  caused  by  the  approach  of  the  Moguls  to  the  Baltic  pre- 
vented the  inhabitants  of  that  coast  from  sending  their  vessels  to  Eng 
land,  in  1238,  to  take  in  cargoes  of  herrings  as  usual ;  so  that,  as  there 
was  no  exportation,  forty  or  fifty  of  those  fish  sold  for  a  shilling.  "  It 
is  whimsical  enough,"  as  the  historian  observes,  "that  the  arms  of  a 
Khan,  who  reigned  in  China,  should  have  affected  the  price  of  fish  in 
the  English  market :"  but  the  passage  is  also  curious,  as  illustrating 
the  existence  of  a  regular  herring  fishery,  and  of  so  active  a  commer 
eial  intercourse  between  England  and  the  North,  in  that  early  age. 


THE    SIXTH    CRUSADE.  395 

valry  to  arm  for  the  general  defence  against  a  com- 
mon and  merciless  enemy.*  The  progress  of  the 
Moguls  was  first  arrested  by  the  gallant  defence  of  a 
few  knights  and  soldiers  in  the  Austrian  city  of 
Neustadt,  by  their  own  distrustful  ignorance  of  the 
art  of  sieges,  and  probably  by  respect  for  the  ex- 
perienced prowess  and  superior  skill  of  the  gathering 
chivalry  of  the  West.  From  its  first  obstruction  at 
Neustadt,  the  huge  inundation  of  Tartar  warfare 
began  slowly  to  recede,  and  at  last  rolled  back  its 
waves  to  the  deserts  of  Ask«.f 

*  See  the  version  of  his  circular  letter  in  Matthew  Paris,  p.  496- 
498,  addressed  to  the  King  of  England,  and  exhorting  him  as  well  as 
other- princes,  by  the  arguments  of  a  common  religion  and  danger  to 
unite  in  despatching  succours  for  the  defence  of  the  frontiers  of  Ger- 
many— "velut  Christianorum  januam" — the  gate,  as  it  were,  of  the 
Christians. 

f  A  lively  picture  of  the  terror  of  Christendom  at  the  progress  of 
the  Tartars  is  afforded  by  many  passages  and  letters  in  the  History  of 
the  Monk  of  St.  Alban's,  especially  in  p.  487,  496-498,  538-540,  and 
Additamenta,  p.  1128-1131.  A  frightful  estimate  of  the  numbers 
of  a  Tartar  host  is  given  in  the  assertion,  that  it  covered  twenty  days' 
journey  in  length,  and  fifteen  in  breadth  !  One  description — which, 
it  is  curious,  (p,  539,)  was  obtained  from  an  outlawed  Englishman,  who 
had  wandered  eastward  from  Palestine,  fallen  among  those  barbarians, 
and  entered  Europe  with  them  as  interpreter — accurately  presents  the 
genuine  lineaments  of  the  Mongolian  race.  "  Habent  autem  pectora 
dura  et  robusta,  facies  macras  et  pallidas,  scapulas  rigidas  et  erectas, 
nasos  distortos  et  breves,  menta  proeminentia  et  acuta,  superiorem 
mandibulam  humilem  et  profundam,  dentos  longos  et  raros,  palpebras 
a  crinibus  usque  %ad  nasum  protensas,  oculos  inconstantes  et  nigros, 
aspectus  obliquos  et  torvos,  &c."  (They  have  large  and  strong  bodies, 
thin  and  pale  faces,  high  and  stiff  shoulders,  short  and  misshapen 
noses,  projecting  and  sharp  chins,  retiring  and  deep  upper  jaws,  long 
teeth  and  few  of  them,  eyelids  extending  from  the  hair  to  the  nose., 


U6  THE    LAST    FOUR     CRUSADES. 

The  state,  meanwhile,  of  the  Mogul  power  in  the 
central  expanse  of  that  quarter  of  the  globe — which 
in  the  triple  partition  of  the  dynasty  of  Zingis  formed 
the  Empire  of  Western  Tartary — may  be  overlooked 
in  its  uninteresting  obscurity;  [A.  D.  1258;]  but  the 
second  invasion  and  conquest  of  the  southern  regions 
of  Asia  had  some  effects,  more  important  and  durable, 
upon  the  aspect  of  the  civilized  world.  The  per- 
manent subjugation  of  Persia  was  the  work  of  Hola- 
gou,  a  third  mighty  victor  among  the  grandsons  of 
Zingis.  That  kingdom  was  again  bravely  defended 
by  the  hero  Gelaleddin,  who,  on  the  first  withdrawal 
of  the  Moguls  to  their  native  plains,  had  returned 
from  India,  and  resumed  the  possession  of  his  ruined 
throne.  But  his  efforts  were  again  fruitless  against 
the  innumerable  Tartarian  swarms;  and  after  sus- 
taining a  contest  of  eleven  years  and  the  vicissitudes 
of  fourteen  great  battles,  he  closed  a  career,  which  was 
worthy  of  a  better  termination,  by  a  sluggish  old 
age, and  an  inglorious  death  in  the  fastnesses  of  Tur- 


black  and  unsteady  eyes,  and  a  doubtful  and  fierce  look.)  Their 
ferocity  could  hardly  be  exaggerated,  for  assuredly  they  spared  neither 
age,  sex,  nor  condition;  yet  their  cannibalism,  though  asserted  by  eye- 
witnesses, and  easily  credited  throughout  Europe,  may  be  doubted. 
"  Victi  quoque  non  supplicant,  et  vincentes  non  parcunt,"  (when  van- 
quished they  ask  no  quarter,  and  when  victors  they  give  none,)  is  the 
emphatic  evidence  of  a  war  of  extermination ;  and  their  very  women, 
warlike  and  ferocious  as  themselves,  were  wooed  for  their  powers  of 
destruction.  "  Et  quae  melius  pugnat,  concupiscibilior  habetur"  (and 
she  who  fights  best,  is  thought  most  worthy  of  marriage.)  p.  1131. 


THE    SIXTH    CRUSADE. 

kestan.  After  the  subjection  of  Persia,  the  crowning 
triumph  of  Holagou  was  the  capture  of  Bagdad,  the 
extinction  of  the  once  splendid  Khalifate  of  the  Abas 
sides,  and  the  death  of  the  last  sovereign  pontiff  of  a 
religion  which  the  idolatrous  conquerors  were  at  a 
subsequent  period  to  embrace  and  extend.  The 
feeble  Mostasem,  the  representative  of  the  long  line 
of  Khalifs,  who  boasted  their  descent  from  the  kins- 
man of  Mohammed,  and  who  had  reigned  in  Asia  for 
five  centuries,  was  hunted  from  his  throne,  and  mur- 
dered by  command  of  Holagou ;  and  with  him  expired 
the  union  of  spiritual  and  temporal  supremacy,  long 
become,  indeed,  more  nominal  than  real,  which  the 
reverence  of  the  Moslem  world  had  constantly  re- 
cognised, and  the  ambition  of  usurpers  had  as  per- 
petually violated,  in  the  family  of  their  prophet. 
While  the  Turcoman  dynasty  of  Persia  and  the  Abas- 
sidan  Khalifate  were  thus  finally  swept  away,  the 
ravages  of  the  same  tempest  spread  over  Asia  Minor 
and  Armenia,  and  approached  the  confines  of  Syria. 
In  the  former  country,  the  Seljukian  dynasty  of  Roum 
was  overwhelmed  in  the  deluge  of  Mogul  invasion ; 
the  Christian  principalities  of  Armenia  shared  the 
same  fate ;  and  it  was  only  some  unexplained  change 
of  course  in  the  barbarian  movements,  rather  than 
any  foreign  resistance  opposed  to  their  progress,  that 
delayed  their  appearance  on  the  sliores  of  the  Bos- 
phorus  and  the  Mediterranean.* 

*  The  foregoing  narrative  of  the  conquests  of  the  Moguls  under 


398  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

But  even  the  secondary  consequences  of  their  vie 
tories  were  fatal  to  the  Christian  power  in  Syria ;  and 
we  are  recalled  to  the  History  of  the  Crusades  by  the 
effects  of  their  conquest  of  Persia.  When  the  fall  of 
Gelaleddin  dispersed  the  Turcoman  or  Kharizmian 
hordes  which  he  had  gathered  to  his  standard  for  the 
defence  of  his  realm,  one  of  these  tribes,  flying  before 
the  Moguls,  in  the  second  year  after  the  recovery  of 
Jerusalem  by  the  Earl  of  Cornwall,  approached  the 
frontiers  of  Palestine  with  the  purpose  of  demanding 
a  settlement  in  Egypt.  Alarmed  at  their  appearance, 
the  sultan,  to  divert  such  unwelcome  guests  from  his 
own  states,  and  irritated  against  the  Christians  by 
,8ome  unprovoked  hostilities  of  the  Templars,  advised 
them  to  establish  themselves  in  Palestine;  and, 
guided  by  an  Egyptian  emir  with  a  body  of  his 
master's  troops,  Barbacan,  the  Kharizmian  chief,  en- 
tered the  Holy  Land  at  the  head  of  twenty  thousand 
cavalry.  The  ruined  defences  of  Jerusalem  had  not  yet 
been  sufficiently  restored  to  sustain  a  siege ;  the  city  was 
abandoned  by  the  knights  of  the  military  orders  on 
the  approach  of  the  invaders;  [A.  D.  1242 ;]  and  the 
savage  Kharizinians,  bursting  into  the  place,  made  a 
horrid  and  indiscriminate  massacre  of  all  the  remain- 
ing inhabitants.  By  the  rapacious  or  wanton  fury  of 
these  barbarians,  both  Christian  and  Moslem  sanc- 

Ahe  successors  of  Zingis  has  been  abridged  chiefly  from  De  Guignes, 
vol.  iv.  lib.  xvi.-xix.,&c.;  with  references  to  the  more  modern  text  of 
Gibbort,  ch.  Ixiv 


THE    SIXTH    CRUSADE.  399 

tuaries  were  profaned  and  pillaged  with  equal  alac- 
rity; the  very  sepulchres  were  violated,  the  remains 
of  the  dead  disinterred  and  rifled;  and  the  mart 
sacred  and  valuable  relics  of  Jerusalem  involved  in  a 
general  destruction.* 

To  arrest  the  pi  ogress  of  invaders  more  fierce  and 
inhuman  than  any  by  whom  Syria  had  previously 
been  desolated,  the  Christian  chivalry  made  common 
cause  with  the  Moslems  of  Damascus,  Aleppo,  and 
Ems;  and  the  sultans  of  all  these  territories  sent  suc- 
cours to  the  knights  of  the  military  orders.  But  the 
united  force  of  these  confederates  was  still  inferior  to 
that  of  the  Egyptians  and  Kharizmians;  and  when 
the  rash  exhortations  of  the  patriarch  of  Jerusalem 
induced  the  knights  to  hazard  a  battle,  they  suffered  a 
terrible  defeat.  Their  Syrian  allies  were  routed  and 
dispersed;  the  grand-masters,  both  of  the  Hospital  and 
Temple,  fell  on  the  field;  and  of  the  whole  Christian 
chivalry,  only  twenty-six  Hospitallers,  thirty-three 
Templars,  and  three  Teutonic  knights,  escaped  from 
the  general  slaughter.-]-  Tiberias,  Ascalon,  and  other 
fortresses  of  the  Latin  kingdom,  successively  fell, 
either  carried  by  storm  or  abandoned  to  the  victors  ; 
[A.  D.  1244 ;]  the  whole  country  was  left  a  prey  to 
their  ravages ;  and  the  remains  of  the  Christian  chi- 
valry and  inhabitants  shut  themselves  up  in  their  last 

*  Matt.    Paris,  p.  546-549,    556-558.     Makrisi,    (in   Joinville, 
Johne's  Translation,)  vol.  ii.  p.  235. 
t  Matt.  Paris,  p.  557. 


400  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

stronghold  of  Acre.  By  subsequent  dissensions  be- 
tween the  Egyptians  and  Kharizmians,  Palestine  was 
delivered  from  the  presence  of  the  latter;  the  Mos- 
lems of  Syria  and  Egypt  felt  the  necessity  of  reunit- 
ing to  crush  intruders  so  destructive ;  the  barbarians, 
after  capturing  Damascus,  were  utterly  defeated  in  a 
general  engagement  by  the  Sultan  of  Egypt ;  their 
leader  Barbacan  was'  slain;  and  their  whole  horde 
was  slaughtered  or  dispersed,  or  driven  back  upon  the 
Eastern  deserts.  But  this  expulsion  of  the  Khariz- 
mians  produced  no  relief  to  the  Christian  cause  in 
Palestine.  The  Holy  Sepulchre  still  remained  in  the 
hands  of  the  Syrian  or  Egyptian  infidels;  the  Latin 
kingdom  had  again  well  nigh  dwindled  into  the  single 
fortress  of  Acre;  and  the  extremity  to  wrhich  its  de- 
fenders were  reduced,  once  more  suggested  to  the 
martial  and  religious  feelings  of  Europe  the  necessity 
of  a  new  Crusade.* 

*  Matt.  Paris,  ubi  supra  et   599-039.     Joinville,  p.  209-211,  and 
Makriai,  (ibid.,)  p.  236-238. 


THE    SEVENTH    CRUSADE. 


401 


View  on  the  Nile. 


SECTION  IV. 


THE   SEVENTH   CRUSADE. 


"\|HE  design  of  this  sacred  enter- 
prise was  ratified,  as  usual,  in 
a  general  assembly  of  the  La- 
tin Church;  and  at  a  council, 
which  was  convoked  at  Lyon 
for  this  among  other  purposes, 
by  Pope  Innocent  IV.,  it  was 
resolved  that  a  Crusade  should 
be  preached,  [A.  D.  1245,]  and 
all  temporal  wars  suspended 
for  four  years  throughout  Chris- 
tendom. The  troubled  state  of 


26 


402       THE  LAST  FOUR  CRUSADES. 

Germany  and  Italy,  and  the  renewed  quarrel  between 
the  Emperor  Frederic  II.  and  the  papacy,  seem  to 
have  prevented  the  missionaries  of  the  Holy  War 
from  meeting  with  much  success  in  those  countries; 
but  the  effects  of  their  preaching  extended  to  remoter1 
regions,  and  Haco,  King  of  Norway,  assumed  the 
Cross.*  It  was  in  France  and  England,  however,  that 
the  flame  of  enthusiasm  was  most  ardently  and  effectu- 
ally rekindled,  chiefly  through  the  example  of  Louis 
IX.,  whose  character  was  almost  equally  revered  by 
both  nations;  and  on  the  intelligence  of  whose  pur- 
pose William  Longsword,  (the  former  crusading  com- 
panion of  the  Earl  of  Cornwall,)  with  the  Bishop  of 
Salisbury,  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  Walter  de  Lacy,  and 
many  other  English  nobles  and  knights,  vowed  to 
serve  under  his  standard.  The  Norwegian  monarch 
having  been  diverted  from  his  enterprise  by  some  un- 
explained causes,  the  prosecution  of  the  Holy  War 
was  abandoned  to  the  chivalry  of  France  and  Eng- 
land; and  the  events  of  the  Seventh  Crusade  are  con- 
fined to  the  expedition  of  St.  Louis  and  his  insular 
auxilaries.f 

*  Matt,  Paris,  p.  643. 

f  Our  sufficient  guide,  for  the  events  of  the  Seventh  Crusade,  will 
be  that  good  knight  John,  Lord  de  Joinville,  grand-seneschal  of 
Champagne,  the  faithful  companion  of  St.  Louis,  and  actor  in  the 
scenes  which  he  describes,  whose  memoirs  have  been  enriched,  both 
by  the  notes  and  dissertations  of  Du  Cange,  and  by  extracts  from 
such  Arabian  MSS.  as  illustrate  the  subject  before  us.  The  text  of 
Ihe  contemporary  national  historian,  Matthew  Paris,  will  also,  how- 


THE    SEVENTH    CRUSADE.  403 


n 

Blanche  of  Castile. 

During  his  absence  on  the  Crusade,  Louis  IX.  left 
his  kingdom  under  the  administration  of  his  mother, 
the  celebrated  Blanche  of  Castile. 

In  Cyprus,  the  general  rendezvous  of  the  expedition, 
Louis  was  joined  by  a  long  array  of  the  baronage  of 
France,  with  their  knights  and  men-at-arms,  and, 

ever,  supply  some  notices  of  the  share  of  the  Epglish  crusaders  in  the 
expedition.  But  the  perfect  good  faith  which  breathes  through  the 
narrative  of  the  Marshal  of  Champagne,  the  affection  with  which  he 
describes  the  virtues  and  cherishes  the  memory  of  the  excellent 
prince  whom  he  followed,  and  the  unaffected  simplicity  with  which 
he  confesses  every  emotion  of  a  spirit,  too  truly  brave  for  conceal- 
ment of  its  fears,  and  too  pious,  with  all  his  superstition,  not  to  claim 
our  respect,  altogether  give  a  charm  and  value  to  his  lively  relation, 
which  is  scarcely  to  be  found  in  any  other  authority  of  the  times, 
and  fill  the  realities  of  chivalric  adventure  with  more  delightful  and 
loving  interest  than  all  the  creations  of  romance. 


104       THE  LAST  FOUR  CRUSADES. 


Haco,  King  of  Norway. 

among  others,  by  the  noble,  historian  of  the  Holy 
War.*  [A.  D.  1248.]  Eight  months  were  consumed 
with  little  necessity  or  prudence,  it  should  seem, 

*  Nothing  can  be  more  touching  than  Joinville's  expressions  of  his 
feelings  on  quitting  his  native  land  and  kindred  on  so  distant  and 
perilous  an  enterprise.  "  But  as  I  was  journeying  from  Bliecourt  to 
St.  Urban,  I  was  obliged  to  pass  near  to  the  Castle  of  Joinville;  I 
'  dared  never  turn  my  eyes  that  way  for  fear  of  feeling  too  great  re- 
gret, and  lest  my  courage  should  fail  on  leaving  my  two  fine  children, 
and  my  fair  castle  of  Joinville,  which  I  loved  in  my  heart."  His 
descriptions  always  bring  the  scene  before  our  eyes.  "  They  all 
with  a  loud  voice  sang  the  beautiful  hymn  of  Vcni  Oreator  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end;  and  while  they  were  singing,  the  mariners  set 
their  sails  in  the  name  of  God.  Instantly  after,  a  breeze  of  wind 
filled  our  sails,  and  soon  made  us  lose  sight  of  land,  so  that  we  s;iw 
only  sea  and  sky,"  &c.,  p.  118,  119.  (Johnes's  Translation.)  His 
naive  reflection  immediately  afterward,  on  the  prudence  of  carrying  a 
good  conscience  to  sea,  we  have  elsewhere  quoted. 


406  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

before  the  congregated  host  finally  proceeded  to  its 
destined  scene  of  action.  In  imitation  of  the  plan  of 
the  Fifth  Crusade,  Egypt,  as  the  principal  seat  of  the 
Moslem  power,  was  again  selected  for  the  theatre  of 
opeiations,  the  capture  of  Damietta  for  the  first  enter, 
prise  of  the  war;  and  by  a  strange  blindness  or  fa- 
tality, the  very  errors  which  had  entailed  destruction 
thirty  years  before  upon  a  Christian  army  on  the 
same  shores,  were  now  faithfully  copied, or  repeated. 
The  armament  with  which  Louis  sailed  from  the 
shores  of  Cyprus  covered  the  sea  writh  eighteen  hun- 
dred vessels,  great  and  small,  and  contained  full  two 
thousand  eight  hundred  knights,  with  their  horses 
and  an  attendant  cavalry  of  six  or  seven  thousand 
men-at-arms,  and  a  force  of  infantry  which  has  been 
variously  estimated  at  from  fifty  to  above  one  hun- 
dred thousand.*  But  *  violent  tempest,  blowing 
from  the  Egyptian  coast,  so  dispersed  this  immense 
armada  that,  when  the  French  king  made  the  port  of 
Damietta,  he  had  not  witU  him  above  seven  hundred 
knights.  The  numerous  forces  of  the  sultan  lined  the 
shore,  and  so  awed  and  astounded  the  French  by 

*  If  an  Arabian  historian  may  be  credited,  Louis  afterward  declared 
to  one  of  the  officers  of  the  Egyptian  Sultan  that  he  had  landed  with 
nine  thousand  knights,  five  thousand  horse,  and  one  hundred  and 
thirty  thousand  foot,  including  workmen  and  servants.  See  Arabic 
Extracts  appended  to  Joinvillc,  p.  262.  But  this  is  doubtless  an  ex- 
aggeration of  Moslem  vanity;  and  a  passage  in  Makrisi,  (ibid.,  p.  254,) 
which  estimates  the  whole  force  at  seventy  thousand  men,  is  probably 
nmch  nearer  the  truth. 


THE  SEVENTH  CRUSADE.         407 

their  imposing  array,  and  the  clang  of  their  trumpets 
and  kettle-drums,  that  the  councillors  of  Louis  ad- 
vised him  to  defer  his  landing  until  the  junction  of 
his  absent  knights;  but  the  gallant  monarch,  who 
dreaded  a  continued  exposure  of  his  armament  to  the 
perils  of  the  sea  much  more  than  the  numbers  of  the 
infidels,  resolved  on  an  immediate  attack;  and  him- 
self, in  complete  armour,  with  his  shield  pendent  from 
his  neck,  his  lance  on  his  wrist,  and  the  oriflamme 
borne  before  him,  leaping  into  the  waves  breast  high, 
was  among  the  foremost  who  reached  the  shore.  The 
Mussulmans  were  so  panic-stricken  at  the  boldness  of 
the  Christian  debarkation,  that  they  not  only  fled 
from  the  strand,  but  abandoned  the  city  of  Damietta, 
though  it  had  been  furnished  with  a  numerous  gar- 
rison, and  was  more  strongly  fortified  than  when,  in 
the  former  Crusade,  it  had  sustained  a  siege  of 
eighteen  months.  [A.  D.  1249.]  Before  the  infidels 
fled,  however,  they  set  fire  in  many  places  to  the 
trading  quarter  of  Damietta,*  which,  with  much  valua- 

*  In  consequence  of  this  destruction  of  merchandise,  the  booty  cap- 
tured, although  Damietta  had  long  been  the  emporium  of  Egypt,  was 
small,  not  exceeding  six  thousand  livres  in  value ;"  and  Louis  incurred 
great  obloquy  by  appropriating  the  whole  of  it  to  himself,  contrary 
to  "  the  gwod  and  ancient  customs"  observed  in  the  Holy  Land,  by 
if  Inch  one-third  of  all  spoil  went  to  the  king,  and  the  remaining  two- 
thirds  were  shared  among  the  crusaders.  To  this  act,  which  seems  - 
strangely  at  variance  with  the  usual  conduct  of  so  scrupulous  an 
observer  of  justice  as  the  "good  saint,"  Joinville  says  he  was  insti- 
gated by  the  ill  advice  of  a  prelate,  and  the  assent  gf  his  council. 
P.  12(5. 


408  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

ble  merchandise,  was  utterly  consumed;  and  the 
French,  astonished  at  their  own  success,  took  posses- 
sion of  the  deserted  city,  and  impatiently  awaited  the 
arrival  of  the  remainder  of  their  scattered  armament.* 
The  crusaders,  however,  soon  discovered  that  it 
was  no  more  than  a  transient  panic  which  had  de- 
livered Damietta  into  their  hands ;  and  they  them- 
selves were  shortly  besieged  within  its  walls  by  the 
army  of  the  sultan.  The  throne  of  Egypt  was  at 
this  epoch  filled  by  Nedjmeddin,  grandson  of  Sa- 
phadin,  brother  of  the  great  Saladin,  a  prince  of 
courage  and  ability;  who,  on  intelligence  of  the 
meditated  invasion  of  the  French,  had  been  recalled 
from  his  career  of  conquest  in  Syria  to  the  defence  of 
his  kingdom ;  and  who,  though  afflicted  with  a  mortal 
disease,  had  succeeded  in  reaching  the  banks  of  the 
Nile  some  time  before  the  Christian  descent.  His 
first  act,  on  learning  the  flight  of  the  garrison  of 
Damietta,  was  to  punish  fifty  of  their  officers  with 
the  death  which  their  cowardice  deserved ;  his  next, 
to  hasten,  ill  as  he  was,  to  the  scene  of  danger,  as- 
sume the  personal  command  of  all  the  levies  of 
Egypt,  which  he  summoned  to  his  standard,  and  in- 
vest on  all  sides  the  Christian  position.  The  gather- 
ing numbers  of  the  infidels  already  began  to  straiten 

*  Joinville,  p.  116-128.  Makrisi,  p.  238-242.  See  also  several 
letters  in  Matthew  Paris  from  the  Count  d'Artois,  the  master  of  tho 
Templars,  and  others,  announcing  the  capture  of  Damietta. 
menta,  p.  1090-1094. 


THE     SEVENTH     CRUSADE.  409 

Louis  and  his  followers  in  Damietta,  when  their 
anxiety  was  relieved  by  the  junction  of  those  parts 
of  their  expedition  which  had  been  dispersed  on  the 
voyage  from  Cyprus,  and  driven  into  Acre,  together 
with  a  body  of  English  nobles  and  knights,  under 
William  Lornrsword.  Notwithstanding  the  arrival  of 
these  reinforcements,  however,  much  time  was  lost  in 
mischievous  inaction  at  Damietta,  interrupted  only 
by  skirmishes  with  the  infidels;  and  the  crusading 
host  fell  into  licentious  excesses  and  disorders,*  which 
their  victorious  leader  wanted  either  power  or  energy 
to  repress,  and  to  which  their  pious  historian  does  not 
hesitate  to  ascribe  the  wrath  of  God  and  the  subse- 
quent ruin  of  their  enterprise/)* 

At  length  it  was  resolved  to  advance  to  Cairo;  and 
the  Christian  army  began  to  ascend  the  branch  of  the 
Nile  fr,om  Damietta  towards  that  capital.^  The 

*  After  describing  the  debaucheries  of  tb.e  nobility,  Joinville  adds, 
Et  le  commun  peuple  se  print  d  forcer  et  violer  femmes  et  Jilles. 
Dont  de  ce  advint  grant  mal.  Car  il  failut  quc  le  roy  en  donnait  con- 
gie  (was  obliged  to  wink)  d  tout  plain  dt  ses  gens  et  offlciers.  Car 
ainsi  que  le  bon  roy  me  dist,  il  trouve  jusques  d  ung  gccl  de  pierre 
pres  et  d  fen  tour  de  son  paveillon  plusie.irs  bordeaux,  que  ses  yens 
tcnoient.  (The  commonalty  likewise  gftve  themselves  up  to  de- 
bauchery, and  violated  both  women  and  girls.  Great  were  the  evila 
in  consequence,  for  it  became  necessary  for  the  king  to  wink  at  the 
greatest  liberties  of  his  officers  and  men.  The  good  king  even  told 
ne,  that  at  a  stone's  throw  round  his  own  pavilion  were  several 
brothels.)  Ed.  Paris,  16G8,  p.  32. 

f  Joinville,  p.  128-132.     Matthew  35aris,  p.  664. 

|  There  is  an  inexplicable  tale  in  Joinville  of  the  treacherous  con- 
duct of  the  sultan,  who  sent  five  hundred  horse  to  guide  the  Chria- 


410  THE    LAST    FOUR     CRUSADES. 

march  along  the  bank  of  the  river,  notwithstanding 
the  resistance  of  the  Moslems,  was  successfully 
though  slowly  accomplished,  as  far  as  Mansoura ;  but 
with  the  capture  of  that  town  commenced  the  disas- 
ters of  the  Crusade.  At  the  head  of  the  flower  of 
the  French  and  English  chivalry,  the  Count  d'Artois, 
one  of  the  brothers  of  Louis,  being  detached  to  effect 
the  passage  of  the  Ashmoum  canal,*  near  that  place, 

tian  army,  and  thus  led  his  enemies  into  a  snare  !  The  French  were 
enjoined  not  to  injure  any  of  these  Mussulmans,  who,  however,  sud- 
denly turned  upon  the  Templars  in  the  van,  attacked  them  by  sur- 
prise, and  were  immediately  cut  to  pieces  by  that  fiery  chivalry.  It 
seems  inconceivable  that  the  "good  king"  should  have  been  gulled 
by  so  clumsy  a  stratagem,  and  may  rather  be  suspected  that  the  in- 
fidels were  deserters,  who  were  sacrificed  to  some  suspicion  of  the 
impetuous  Templars.  P.  132. 

*  We  omit  a  long  account  in  Joinville  of  some  unavailing  efforts 
of  the  French,  under  cover  of  their  chas-chatails,  or  wooden  towers, 
to  throw  a  causeway  over  the  canal  of  Ashmoum.  These  machines, 
as  fast  as  they  were  built,  the  infidels  destroyed  with  the  Greek  fire, 
of  the  appalling  effects  of  which  the  brave  knight  gives  a  woful  de- 
scription. The  whole  passage  (p.  134-138)  forms  a  valuable  illus- 
tration of  middle-age  warfare,  but  is  unimportant  to  our  present 
narrative,  as  the  French  were  unsuccessful  in  all  their  efforts,  and 
were  at  last  enabled  to  pags  the  canal  only  by  the  treason  of  a  Be- 
douin, who  betrayed  to  them  the  existence  of  a  ford  through  the  cur- 
rent. But  it  may  be  observed  as  a  curious  i'act,  that,  throughout  the 
operations -of  this  disastrous  campaign,  the  superiority  of  the  Orien- 
tals over  the  Latins^in  martial  science  is  very  evident.  Of  the  com- 
position of  the  celebrated  Greek  fire,  to  the  marvellous  effects  of 
which  the  mediaeval  historians  and  annalists  bear  such  ample  and 
euch  frequent  testimony,  nothing  whatever  is  known  with  certainty. 
It  was  invented  or  discovered  by  Callinicus  of  Heliopolis  in  Syria,  in 
the  year  668,  who  was  probably  a  master-builder  or  architect ;  and 
having  communicated  the  secret  of  its  preparation  tc  the  Greeks,  it 


THE   SEVENTH   CRUSADE.         411 

rashly  pursued  the  flying  infidels  into  the  town,  with 
out  deigning  to  listen  to  the  experienced  counsel  of 
William  Longsword,  and  the  grand-master  of  the 
Templars,  to  await  the  support  of  the  main  body  of 
the  army.  The  conduct  of  the  French  prince  waa 
marked  by  the  same  vaunting  temerity  which,  in  so 
many  previous  and  subsequent  combats  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  led  the  national  chivalry  of  France  into  head- 
long destruction.  Stung  by  his  insolent  reproaches, 
Longsword  and  his  English  brethren,  the  masters  of 
the  Temple  and  Hospital,  with  the  knights  of  both 
orders,  vied  with  the  French  in  the  blind  precipitation 
of  their  valour;  they  burst  into  the  town  of  Man- 
soura ;  and  when  the  fury  of  their  charge  had  thrown 
the  whole  body  into  confusion,  they  were  enveloped 
in  the  place  by  the  rallying  infidels,  and  totally 


was  preserved  by  them  for  four  centuries,  when,  by  some  means  or 
other,  it  was  procured  by  the  Moslems,  who,  as  we  see  above,  em- 
ployed the  Greek  fire  with  destructive  force  against  the  army  of 
King  Louis.  Asphalt,  or  mineral  bitumen,  sulphur,  and  petroleum, 
or  mineral  oil,  are  all  supposed  to  have  been  used  in  its  composition, 
though  in  what  proportions  it  is  impossible  now  to  ascertain ;  and 
Anna  Comnena  expressly  mentions  the  pitch  obtained  from  ever- 
green firs.  It  was  projected  in  various  forms,  and  from  various  kinds 
of  instruments,  and  was  inextinguishable  by  water,  but  extinguish- 
ablo  by  sand,  vinegar,  and  other  liquids.  It  was  undoubtedly  the 
most  formidable  material  of  war  known  to  the  Middle  Ages,  though 
its  employment  would  seem  to  have  been  confined  wholly  to  Eastern 
Europe  and  Asia  Minor  j  but  after  the  discovery  of  gunpowder,  in 
the  fourteenth  century,  we  hear  no  more  of  its  use  as  an  implement 
of  destruction 


412       THE  LAST  FOUR  CRUSADES. 

routed.  The  Count  d'Artois  himself— the  author  of 
the  calamity — William  Longsword,  and  the  master  of 
the  Templars,  the  victims  of  his  presumption,  and  a 
host  of  other  gallant  knights,  were  all  slain  on  the 
spot,  or  grievously  wounded  ;  the  master  of  the  Hos- 
pitallers fell  alive  into  the  enemy's  hands:  and  the 
remnant  of  the  band  were  rescued  from  the  same  fate 
only  by  the  advance  of  the  maift  army  under  the 
king  himself;  who,  after  performing  prodigies  of  per- 
sonal valour,  succeeded  in  compelling  the  Moslems  to 
retire.* 

This  equivocal  victory  was,  however,  without  ad- 
vantage to  the  Christians;  and  their  critical  position 
only  served,  on  the  contrary,  to  inspire  new  confidence 
into  the  infidel  host.  Nedjmeddin  himself  was  now 
dead,  having  lately  expired  under  the  incurable 
malady  against  which  his  spirit  had  bravely  striven ; 


*  Joinville,  p.  132-148.  Matt.  Paris,  p.  672-680,  685.  Makrisi, 
p.  245-248.  For  the  relation  in  the  text  of  the  part  taken  by  the 
English  crusaders  in  the  calamitous  action  of  Mansoura,  we  are  in- 
debted to  the  monk  of  St.  Alban's.  Joinville,  from  respect  probably 
to  the  memory  of  the  Count  d'Artois,  has  passed  in  silence  over  the 
tale  of  the  fatal  rashness  by  which  that  prince  brought  such  ruin  on 
the  crusading  cause,  and  has  omitted  the  name  of  Longsword  among 
the  victims  of  his  presumption.  It  is  more  remarkable  that,  from 
whatever  cause,  the  good  seneschal  has  never  once,  we  believe,  di- 
rectly noticed  the  share  of  the  Eaglish  in  the  crusade ;  and  a  single 
observation,  that  Louis  assigned  a  certain  post  to  "  the  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy and  the  nobles  beyond  seas,  his  allies,"  (p.  139)  is  the  only 
passage  in  which  he  deigns  to  record  the  presence  or  services  of  these 
foreign  auxiliaries  among  his  countrymen. 


THE    SEVENTH    CRUSADE.  413 

but  his  death  was  carefully  concealed  until  the  arrival 
of  his  son  and  successor,  Touran-Shah,  in  the  Moslem 
camp ;  the  government  was  administered  by  the  sul- 
tana, in  the  name  of  her  deceased  lord ;  and  the  func- 
tions of  a  commander-in-chief  were  skilfully  per- 
formed, and  the  courage  of  the  troops  sustained,  by 
Bibars,  general  of  the  Mamelukes,  who  himself,  in 
the  sequel,  seized  the  sceptre  which  he  was  worthy  of 
wielding.  On  the  arrival  of  the  new  sultan,  the 
Egyptian  galleys  on  the  Nile  were  drawn  overland 
from  above,  and  launched  below  the  Christian  camp ; 
the  communication  of  the  French  army  with  Damietta 
was  thus  cut  off;  and  through  precisely  the  same  im- 
prudence, and  probably  on  the  very  ground  on  which 
the  host  of  the  Fifth  Crusade  had  been  enclosed  be- 
tween the  canal  of  Ashmoum  and  the  river,  Louis 
and  his  army  wrere  now  intercepted.  In  this  situa- 
tion, famine  and  a  pestilence,  the  consequences  of  un- 
wholesome diet,*  soon  made  frightful  ravages  in  the 

*  "  You  must  know  that  we  eat  no  fish  the  whole  Lent,  but  eel 
pouts,  which  is  a  gluttonous  fish,  and  feeds  on  dead  bodies.  From 
this  cause,  and  from  the  bad  air  of  the  country,  where  it  scarcely  ever 
rains  a  drop,  the  whole  army  was  affected  by  a  shocking  disorder, 
which  dried  up  the  flesh  on  our  legs  to  the  bone,  and  our  skins  be- 
came tanned  as  black  as  the  ground,  or  like  an  old  boot  that  has  long 
lain  behind  a  coffer.  In  addition  to  this  miserable  disorder,  those 
affected  by  it  had  another  sore  complaint  in  the  mouth  from  eating 
Buch  fish,  that  rotted  the  gums,  and  caused  a  most  stinking  breath. 
Very  few  escaped  death  that  were  thus  attacked,"  &c. — Joinville,  p. 
159.  "The  disorder  I  spoke  of,  very  soon  increased  so  much  in  the 
army,  that  the  barbers  were  forced  to  cut  away  very  large  pieces  of 


414  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

Christian  camp ;  a  furthei  advance  was  impossible , 
and  after  a  period  of  calamitous  inaction,  broken  only 
by  the  assaults  of  the  infidels  and  some  vain  over- 
tures of  peace,  no  other  resource  remained  for  the  en- 
feebled and  wretched  army  of  the  crusaders,  than  to 
attempt  a  retreat  to  Damietta.  But  this  movement 
was  the  signal  of  universal  disorder  and  rout;  the 
Mussulmans  broke  into  the  camp  and  murdered  the 
abandoned  sick ;  their  galleys  cut  off  all  the  fugitives 
who  endeavoured  to  escape  down  the  river ;  the  troops 
who  marched  by  land  were  overwhelmed  by  the  innu- 
merable cavalry  of  the  sultan ;  and  Louis  himself — 
who,  though  sinking  under  the  same  illness  as  the 
rest  of  the  army,  had  remained  with  the  rear-guard,  . 
and  discharged  all  the  duties  of  a  devoted  commander 
and  valiant  soldier — fell,  in  a  state  of  helpless  ex- 
haustion from  disease  and  wounds,  into  the  hands  of 
the  victorious  infidels.  [A.  D.  1250.]  His  surviving 
brothers,  Charles  and  Alfonso,  Counts  of  Anjou  and 
of  Poitiers",  together  with  all  his  nobility  and  knight- 
hood, who  escaped  the  first  slaughter  of  the  onset, 
shared  his  fate ;  but  no  mercy  was  shown  by  the  in- 
fidels to  the  soldiery  and  others  of  inferior  condition ; 
and  of  the  Christians  of  all  ranks  there  fell  on  this 
fatal  occasion,  either  slain  in  the  field  or  massacred  in 

desh  from  the  gums,  to  enable  their  patients  to  eat.  It  was  pitiful  to 
bear  the  cries  and  groans  of  those  on  whom  this  operation  was  per- 
forming j  they  seemed  like  to  the  cries  of  women  in  labour,  and  I 
aannot  express  the  great  concern  all  felt  who  heard  them,"  p.  162. 


THE  SEVENTH  CRUSADE.          415 

cold   blood,  at   the   lowest  computation,  upward   of 
thirty  thousand  men.* 

The  situation  of  even  the  captive  king  and  his 
nobles  was  for  some  time  extremely  critical,  and  their 
ultimate  safety  was  placed  in  imminent  hazard,  by  a 
domestic  revolution  in  Egypt,  which  almost  imme- 
diately followed  the  Moslem  victory.  The  new  sul- 
tan, Touran  Shah,  is  accused  by  the  Oriental  writers 
of  debauchery,  favouritism,  and  cruelty;  but  it  is  only 
certain  that  his  impolitic  conduct  alienated  'the  affec- 
tion of  the  formidable  bands  whose  services,  under 
Bibars,  had  been  mainly  instrumental  in  achieving  his 
triumph  over  the  Christian  invaders.  These  troops, 
whose  renown  is  so  familiar  to  European  ears  under 
the  designation  of  Mamelukes,  had  been  organized  by 
the  late  Sultan  Nedjrneddin,  and  had  proved  them- 
selves the  firmest  support  of  his  throne.  Their  ranks 
had  been  originally  filled,  as  they  continued  ever  after 
to  be  recruited,  by  slaves,  principally  of  the  hardy 
Turcoman  stock,  purchased  at  an  early  age,  and  edu- 
cated in  the  camp ;  but  their  fidelity  to  the  house  of 


*  Joinville,  p.  149-170.  Matt.  Paris,  p.  685,  686.  Makrisi,  p. 
248-251.  The  numbers  which  perished  iu  this  retreat  and  capture 
of  the  crusading  host,  it  is,  as  usual,  difficult  to  estimate.  Joinville 
is  silent  on  this  point;  Makrisi  says,  one  hundred  thousand — doubt- 
less au  exaggeration;  but  it  appears  that  not  one  of  the  crusaders, 
except  the  garrison  of  Damietta,  escaped ;  and  of  the  Christian  cap- 
tives in  Egypt,  afterward  released,  the  numbers  are  declared,  with 
uncommon  precision  by  the  same  Arabic  historian,  p.  254,  to  have 
been  only  twelve  thousand  one  hundred  men,  and  ten  women. 


416 


THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 


St.  Louit  in  captivity. 

their  founder  expired  with  his  death,  and  they  now 
revolted  and  murdered  his  son.  With  Touran  Shah 
ended  the  Curdish  dynasty,  which,  commencing  with 
the  great  Saladin,  had  reigned  in  Egypt  and  Syria  for 
eighty  years;  under  sultans  who  sprang  from  their 
own  ranks,  the  Mamelukes  held  independent  posses- 
sion of  those  countries  for  nearly  a  century  and  a  half, 
until  their  nominal  subjection  to  the  Turkish  power; 
and  it  has  been  reserved  for  our  age  to  witness  the 
final  extinction  of  their  bands.* 

By  Touran  Shah,  the  King  of  France  had  at  first 
been  treated  with  generosity;  and  a  negotiation  for 

*  For  the  origin  of  the  Mamelukes,  see  Joinville,  p.  156.     Mak- 
risi,  p.  244,  with  Du  Cange's  note,  &c. 


THE  SEVENTH  CRUSADE.        417 

his  ransom  and  that  of  his  followers  was  speedily  con- 
cluded; but  not  until  some  menaces  of  torture  had 
been  ineffectually  tried  upon  the  brave  spirit  of  Louis, 
to  obtain  the  surrender  of  the  Christian  fortresses  in 
the  Holy  Land.  It  had,  however,  been  agreed  that 
he  should  yield  up  Damietta  as  the  price  of  his  own 
liberty,  and  pay  a  sum  of  gold,  equal  in  French 
money  to  four  hundred  thousand  livres,  for  the  de- 
liverance of  his  army,  when  the  murder  of  the  sultan 
suspended  the  fulfilment  of  the  treaty.  In  the  sub- 
sequent confusion,  Louis  and  his  nobles  narrowly 
escaped  death*  from  the  fanaticism  of  some  of  the 
Moslem  chieftains;  but  more  humane  or  avaricions 
suggestions  finally  prevailed  in  their  councils,  and  the 
completion  of  the  treaty  was  resumed.  Finally,  Da- 
mietta was  surrendered  by  its  French  garrison  in 
exchange  for  the  persons  of  the  king  and  his  nobles; 
the  Templars  were  reluctantly  compelled  to  make  a 
loan  from  the  treasurers  in  their  galleys  to  complete 


*  Joinville  himself,  when  a  party  of  Saracens  with  drawn  sworda 
and  menacing  aspects  entered  the  galley  in  which  he  was  confined, 
imagined  that  his  last  hour  was  come.  "  With  regard  to  myself,  I 
no  longer  thought  of  any  sin  or  evil  I  had  done,  but  that  I  was  about 
to  receive  my  death;  in  consequence  I  fell  on  my  knees  at  the  feet 
of  one  of  them,  and  making  the  sign  of  the  cross,  said,  '  Thus  died 
St.  Agnes/  Sir  Guy  d'Ebelin,  constable  of  Cyprus,  knelt  beside  me, 
and  confessed  himself  to  me,  and  I  gave  him  such  absolution  as  God 
was  pleased  to  grant  me  the  power  of  bestowing ;  but  of  all  the  things 
he  had  said  to  me,  when  I  rose  up,  I  could  not  remember  one  of 

them/'  p.  176. 

27 


418  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

the  required  discharge  of  the  first  instalment  of  the 
pecuniary  ransom ;  and  Louis,  with  the  sad  remnant 
of  the  proud  host  which  had  debarked  at  Damietta, 
bade  adieu  to  the  shores  of  Egypt.* 

On  their  liberation,  the  greater  number  of  the  sur- 
viving nobles,  with  their  followers,  gladly  availed 
themselves  of  the  plea,  that  the  disasters  and  suffer- 
ings which  they  had  already  undergone  were  a  suf- 
ficient acquittance  of  their  crusading  vows;  and,  aban- 
doning all  idea  of  further  service  in  the  sacred  cause, 
they  sailed  direct  for  France.  But  the  religious  and 
chivalrous  scruples  of  their  king  were  less  easily 
satisfied.  His  devotional  feelings,  and  his  sensitive 
conviction  of  the  disgrace  with  which  defeat  and  cap- 
tivity had  sullied  his  arms,-]-  equally  impelled  him  to 
continue  his  efforts,  in  the  hope  of  achieving  some 
happier  enterprise  for  the  redemption  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre,  and  the  recovery  of  his  fame.  He  there- 
fore proceeded  to  Acre,  (Ptolemais,)  and,  after  some 
hesitation  in  his  councils,  announced  a  settled  purpose 
to  remain  in  Palestine,  and  to  employ  whatever  trea- 
sures and  forces  he  could  still  supply  or  raise  in  the 


*  Joinville,  p.  170-184.  Matt.  Paris,  p.  686-689.  Makrisi,  p. 
251-255. 

f  •'  Rex  autem  apud  Achon  tristis  remansit  et  inglorious,  jurans  in 
cordis  amaritudine  maxima,  quod  nunquam  in  dulcem  Franciam  sic 
confusus  remearet."  (But  the  king,  sad  and  inglorious,  remained  at 
Acre,  swearing  in  very  bitterness  of  heart,  that  thus  dishonoured  he 
would  never  return  to  fair  France.)  Matt.  Paris,  p.  690 


St.  Louis  entering  PtoUmais. 


419 


420  THE   LAST    FCJUR    CRUSADES. 

defence  of  the  Christian  garrisons.*  During  four 
years  he  persevered  in  this  design,  unable,  indeed, 
with  his  exhausted  resources  and  scanty  levies,  to 
perform  any  signal  action,  yet  still  reluctant  to  return 
ingloriously  to  his  native  realm.  As  the  whole  force 
which  he  succeeded  in  assembling  under  his  standard, 
during  this  long  period,  never  amounted  to  above  four 
thousand  men,  he  was  prevented  from  pursuing  any 
offensive  operations  against  the  infidels;  but  his  trea- 
sures were  lavishly  expended  in  refortifying  Jaffa, 
CaBsarea,  and  Sidon,  and  in  making  great  additions  to 
the  strength  of  Acre;  and  his  presence  and  exertions 
not  only  deserved  and  obtained  the  gratitude  of  the 
Christian  chivalry  and  people  of  Palestine,  but  con- 
tributed to  suspend  for  forty  years  the  fall  of  the  last 
bulwarks  of  the  Latin  kingdom  on  the  Syrian  shores.f 
Among  the  circumstances  which  favoured  his 
labours,  and  protected  the  weakness  of  the  Christians, 

*  Among  the  nobles  who  had  remained  with  him  was  the  faithful 
Seneschal  of  Champagne,  who  had  originally  maintained  his  train  of 
knights  at  his  own  expense,  but  having  lost  every  thing  in  Egypt, 
was  now  compelled  to  become  the  stipendiary  soldier  of  the  king. 
When,  however,  his  first  term  of  hired  service  expired,  and  Louis 
proposed  a  new  pecuniary  engagement,  "I  replied,"  says  Joinville, 
"  that  I  was  not  come  to  him  to  make  such  a  bargain ;  but  I  would 
offer  other  terms  :  wfiich  were  that  he  should  promise  never  to  fly  into 
a  passion  for  any  thing  I  should  say  to  him,  which  was  often  the  case, 
and  I  engaged  that  I  would  keep  my  temper  whenever  he  refused 
what  I  should  ask."  The  good  saint  laughingly  assented  to  these 
quaint  and  cheap  conditions.  .Joinville,  p.  205. 

f  Juinville,  passim,  p.  184-224. 


THE  SEVENTH  CRUSADE.         421 

may  be  numbered  the  dissensions  of  their  enemies. 
The  usurpation  of  the  Mamelukes,  and  the  struggle  of 
their  leaders  for  the  possession  of  the  Egyptian  throne, 
had  encouraged  the  revolt  of  Damascus  under  a  sultan, 
the  relative  of  the  murdered  Khalif  of  Cairo;  a  furious 
civil  war  between  the  Moslems  of  Egypt  and  Syria  in- 
terrupted their  assaults  upon  the  Christians,  and  both 
parties  sought  either  to  gain  the  alliance  or  to  avert 
the  hostility  of  the  French  king.  Louis  profited  by 
their  mutual  fears  and  jealousies,  to  obtain  from  the 
Mameluke  rulers  of  Egypt  the  release  of  all  the  sur- 
viving Christian  captives  whom  he  had  left  in  that 
country,  and  a  remission  of  the  moiety,  which  was 
etill  unpaid,  of  the  stipulated  ransom  for  his  army. 
He  received  a  promise  even  of  the  cession  of  Jeru- 
salem itself;  and  the  intelligence  of  the  Moslem  dis- 
sensions and  of  his  successful  negotiation,  again  ex- 
cited the  hopes  of  Europe  for  the  recovery  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre  and  the  re-establishment  of  the  Latin 
kingdom.  But  these  sanguine  expectations  were 
blighted  by  the  conclusion  of  peace  between  the 
Egyptian  and  Syrian  infidels ;  and  their  reunited 
forces  were  immediately  turned  against  the  Chris- 
tians. The  ravage  of  the  Latin  territory  by  a  com- 
bined army  of  various  Moslems,  under  the  Sultan  of 
Damascus,  and  their  advance  to  the  gates  of  Acre,  at 
last  revealed  to  Louis  the  vanity  of  his  fondest  aspi* 
rations,  and  the  utter  hopelessness  of  ultimate  success. 
The  infiiels,  indeed,  retired  without  attempting  the 


422  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

capture  of  the  strong  Christian  fortresses;  and  by 
their  retreat  Louis  remained  at  liberty  to  withdraw 
without  dishonour  from  the  suspended  contest.  The 
news  of  his  mother's  death,  by  which  his  kingdom 
was  left  without  a  regent,  quickened  his  increasing 
desire  to  escape  from  a  scene  of  continued  disappoint- 
ment and  mortification,  and  justified  the  announce- 
ment of  his  purpose  to  return  to  France.  The  clergy 
and  barons  themselves  of  the  Latin  kingdom,  per- 
ceived and  acknowledged  that  his  prolonged  residence 
could  not  be  attended  with  any  advantage ;  and,  offer- 
ing him  their  humble  thanks  and  praise  for  the  great 
good  and  honour  which  he  had  conferred  on  Pales- 
tine, they  gratefully  counselled  him  to  think  rather 
of  ensuring  his  safe  passage  to  Europe  than  of  con- 
tinuing among  them.  Louis  accepted  their  advice, 
and  adopted  a  measure  so  congenial  to  his  altered 
wishes  and  so  necessary  to  the  welfare  of  his  king- 
dom. Embarking  at  Acre,  he  reached  France  after  a 
perilous  voyage,  marked  by  more  than  one  trial  of 
his  brave  and  generous  nature.  [A.  D.  1254.]  It  was, 
however,  but  in  shame  and  sorrow  that  he  abandoned 
the  cause  still  dearest  to  his  pious  feelings;  and  he 
closed  the  Seventh  Crusade  with  the  melancholy  re- 
flection and  self-reproach,  which  even  the  conscious- 
ness of  his  own  virtuous  intentions  could  not  assuage, 
that  he  had  in  vain  sacrificed  his  chivalry  and  people 
to  defeat  and  destruction ;  and  that,  in  exchange  for 
the  best  blood  and  treasures  of  his  kingdom,  he  had 


THE    SEVENTH    CRUSADE.  423 

been  able  to  accomplish  nothing  either  worthy  of  hia 
name,  or  suitable  to  the  general  honour  and  service 
of  Christendom.* 

The  residence  of  St.  Louis,  however,  in  Palestine; 
had  at  least  put  some  check  upon  the  eruption  of  those 
bitter  feuds  among  the  Christians  themselves,  which 
had  ever  been  the  bane  of  their  cause,  and  which 
broke,  out  anew  immediately  after  the  departure  of 
their  royal  leader.  Among  the  most  turbulent  and 
irreconcilable  communities  of  the  Latin  State,  were 
the  colonies  of  the  three  maritime  Italian  republics, 
and  the  military  orders.  In  their  insolent  disdain  of 
all  control  by  the  local  government  of  the  feudal 
kingdom,  the  Venetians,  the  Genoese,  and  the  Pisans 
extended  their  pernicious  spirit  of  commercial  and 
political  rivalry  from  Europe  to  the  Syrian  shore; 
openly  fought  with  each  other  in  every  seaport  of 
Palestine  for  the  possession  of  exclusive  privileges  and 
quarters,  and  even  violated  the  sanctity  of  Christian 
churches  by  impious  arid  bloody  struggles  for  their 
occupation.  With  more  flagrant  dereliction  of  duty 
the  religious  chivalry  of  the  Hospital  and  Temple 
forgot  their  vows  in  the  indulgence  of  their  mutual 
hatred,  and  employed  in  their  fierce  rivalry  the 
arms  which  they  had  sworn  to  use  only  in  the  com: 
mon  service  of  the  Cross.  [A.  D.  1259.]  To  decide 
their  quarrel,  the  two  orders  drew  out  their  forces  in 

*  Joinville,  ubi  supra.     Matt.  Paris,  p.  698, 720,  737,  766 


124  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

the  field  for  a  general  and  formal  engagement;  the 
prowess  or  numbers  of  the  Hospitallers  prevailed; 
and  so  sanguinary  and  merciless  was  the  encounter, 
that  of  all  the  militia  of  the  Temple  then  serving  in 
the  Holy  Land,  scarcely  one  knight  escaped  the  car- 
nage. From  every  commandery  of  the  Temple  in 
Europe  the  most  strenuous  exertions  were  made  tc 
despatch  its  effective  members  to  Palestine,  both  for 
the  purpose  of  replenishing  the  vacant  posts  of  their 
slaughtered  brotherhood,  and  of  -  inflicting  a  signal 
vengeance  upon  the  Hospitallers ;  and  nothing  short 
of  a  war  of  extirmi nation  was  meditated  between  the 
two  orders;  when  their  deadly  feud  was  suddenly 
smothered  under  the  overwhelming  violence  of  a  new 
tempest  of  Mussulman  invasion,  which  threatened  to 
bury  them,  with  the  whole  Christian  State,  under  a 
common  ruin,  and  awoke  them  to  the  duty  or  neces- 
sity of  uniting  their  exhausted  forces  against  the 
general  enemy.* 

After  a  revolutionary  period  of  disorder  and  blood- 

• 

shed,  Bibars,  styled  also  Al  Bonducdari  or  Bondocdar, 
the  same  Mameluke  chieftain  who  had  distinguished 
his  ability  in  the  defence  of  Egypt  against  St.  Louis, 


*  Matthew  Paris,  p.  846,  who  describes  in  strong  terms  the  event* 
of  the  unnatural  warfare  between  these  devoted  champions  of  the 
Cross,  and  the  purpose  with  which  the  Templars  in  Europe  hastened 
to  the  Holy  Land,  "propter  ultionem  horribilem  hostiliter  in  Hospi- 
talarios  retribuendara,"  (for  the  purpose  of  taking  a  horrible  revenge 
•>n  the  Hofcpitallers.) 


THE    SEVENTH.  CRUSADE.  425 

was  raised  by  the  suffrages  of  his  fellow-soldiers  to  the 
throne  of  that  kingdom;  [A.  D.1263;].  and  had  now 
commenced  an  enterprising  reign  of  seventeen  years, 
which  proved  nearly  fatal  to  the  remains  of  the  Chris- 
tian power  in  Palestine.  No  sooner  had  he  consoli- 
dated his  authority  in  Egypt,  than  he  carried  his  arms, 
kito  Syria,  reduced  the  Mussulman  states  in  that 
country  into  subjection,  and  poured  the  united  forces 
of  the  infidels  into  the  Christian  territories.  In  the 
open  field,  the  numbers  of  the  invaders  rendered  all 
resistance  to  their  ravages  hopeless ;  but  the  few  and 
scanty  garrisons  of  the  Latins  made  a  gallant  and 
desperate  defence;  the  military  orders  gave  many  a 
noble  example  of  heroism ;  and,  by  that  singular  ad- 
mixture of  religious  constancy  with  every  fierce  and 
unholy  passion  which  distinguished  their  times  and 
their  associations,  the  same  men  who  had  so  lately 
etained  their  swords  with  the  blood  of  their  Christian 
brethren,  now  vied  with  each  other  only  in  the  gene- 
rous devotion  of  their  lives  to  the  common  cause,  and 
in  the  inflexible  preference  of  martyrdom  to  apostacy. 
[A.  D.  1265.]  Upon  one  occasion,  the  last  of  ninety 
Hospitallers  who  had  defended  Azotus,  died  in  the 
breach ;  on  another,  the  prior  of  the  Templars  with 
his  companions,  who  had  been  reduced  to  extremity, 
and  surrendered  Saphoury  on  a  capitulation  which 
Bibars  treacherously  violated,  were  offered  the  alter- 
native of  a  cruel  death  or  instant  conversion  to  Islam- 
ism,  [A.  D.  1266,]  and  unanimously  sealed  the,  sin- 


426        THE  LAST  FOUR  CRUSADES. 

oerity  of  their  faith  with  their  blood.  But  all  the 
heroic  efforts  of  the  two  orders  failed  to  arrest  the 
progress  of  the  infidels,  or  to  awaken  the  timely 
sympathy  and  succour  of  Europe.  In  the  course  of  a 
few  years,  not  only  the  inland  castles  of  the  two 
orders,  but  Csesarea,  Laodicea,  Jaffa,  and  many  mari- 
time fortresses  successively  fell  before  the  Mameluke 
arms;  and  the  capture  of  Antioch,  and  the  extinction 
of  its  Latin  principality,  which  throughout  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  the  Crusades  had  hitherto  preserved  an 
obscure  and  uninteresting  existence,  completed  the 
triumph  of  Bondocdar. 

The  fall  of  Antioch,  which  was  basely  surren- 
dered without  resistance,  was  attended  by  the 
massacre  of  ten  or  even  forty  thousand  Christians; 
above  one  hundred  thousand  more  were  sold  into 
slavery;  [A.  D.  1268;]  and  the  once  proud  capi- 
tal of  Syria  was  abandoned  to  desolation  and  soli- 
tude.* Acre  was  preserved  from  the  same  fate  only 
through  the  succour  of  the  King  of  Cyprus,  and  the 
destruction  of  the  Egyptian  navy  by  the  elements; 

*  "  Eo  anno,"  says  Rishanger,  the  continuator  of  the  Chronicle  of 
St.  Allan's,  "Soldanus  Babyloniae  vastata  Armenia,  Antiocham, 
unam  de  famosioribus  orbis  civitatibus  abstulit  Christianis,  et  tarn 
viris  quam  mulieribus  interemptis,  fa  solitudinem  ipsam  reduxit." 
(In  that  year  the  Sultan  of  Babylonia,  having  laid  waste  Armenia, 
took  Antioch,  one  of  the  most  famous  citi<  s  on  the  globe,  from  the 
Christians,  and  both  the  men  and  women  being  slain,  he  reduced  it 
to  a  solitude.)  p.  857.  It  may,  however,  be  doubted  whether  its 
lotal  depopulation  is  to  be  understood  literally. 


THE  SEVENTH  CRUSADE.        427 

and  at  this  juncture  the  fall  of  that  last  Chris- 
tian bulwark  on  the  Syrian  coast  was  suspended  for 
twenty  years  by  an  expiring  effort  of  the  crusading 

epirit* 

*  Sanutus,  Secret.  Fidel.  Cntcis,  lib.  iii.  pars.  xii.  c.  6,  ad  part  xiv 
«.  3.     De  Guignes,  Hist.Gen.  des  Huns,  &c.,  lib.  x^L, passim. 


428 


THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 


SECTION  V. 


THE  EIGHTH  CRUSADE. 

• 

¥  HE  appalling  intelligence  of  the 
dreadful  catastrophe  which  had 
extinguished  the  Christian  State 
of  Antioch,  roused  the  Papal 
Court  from  a  long  and  selfish 
apathy  to  the  affairs  of  the 
East;  and  the  unabated  zeal 
with  which  Louis  IX.  of  France 
had  already  contemplated  a  re- 
newal of  his  pious  ser  rices  on 
the  imaginary  cause  of  Heaven, 
was  now  quickened  by  the  approbation  of  Clement  IV. 


THE    EIGHTH    CRUSADE.  429 

The  piety  of  Louis  was  sincere  and  ardent,  and  in 
another  age  it  would,  doubtless,  have  taken  a  more 
rational  direction,  but  in  the  thirteenth  century  it 
was  the  mere  embodiment  of  a  passion  for  the  de- 
livery of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  which  neither  his  past 
experience  nor  his  sufferings,  great  as  the  latter  had 
been,  could  eradicate;  and  after  thirteen  years  spent 
at  home  in  the  wise  and  temperate  exercise  of  his 
regal  functions,  he  resolved  again  to  devote  his  men- 
tal energies  and  his  material  resources  to  the  organi- 
zation of  a  new  Crusade.  Three  years  were  consumed 
in  preparations  for  this  final  effort  to  recover  Pales- 
tine, and  on  the  4th  of  July,  1270,  he  set  sail  with 
his  fleet  from  the  port  of  Aigues-Mortes,  and  in  a  few 
days  reached  the  roadstead  of  Cagliari  in.  Sardinia, 
where  he  anchored,  and  called  a  council  of  war  of  his 
barons  and  counts  to  deliberate  on  the  course  it  was 
most  proper  to  pursue;  when  it  was  determined  by  a 
majority,  and  in  obedience  to  the  king's  secret  wishes, 
to  attempt  the  reduction  of  Tunis,  the  king  of  which 
country  and  his  people  Louis  hoped  to  convert  to 
Christianity.  The  circumstances  which  led  to  this 
extraordinary  resolution  are  but  imperfectly  known, 
though  they  may  probably  be  as  safely  referred  to  the 
intensely  devotional  temperament  of  the  monarch,  as 
to  the  interested  representations  of  his  brother,  Charles 
of  Anjou,  King  of  Naples  and  Sicily,  whose  subjects 
were  molested  by  the  piratical  practices  of  the  Moors ; 
but  however  this  may  be.  the  desire  to  visit  Tunis, 


430  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

and  to  reclaim  its  inhabitants  had  taken  so  deep  a 
hold  on  the  mind  of  Louis,  that  he  was  heard  to  say, 
before  he  left  France,  that  he  would  willingly  spend 
the  rest  of  his  life  in  a  dungeon,  away  from  the  light 
of  the  sun,  if,  by  such  a  sacrifice,  he  could  accomplish 
this  cherished  object.*  Many  of  his  wisest  advisers 
tried  to  turn  him  from  this  fatal  determination,  but  in 
vain;  and  the  good  but  mistaken  king  landed  his 
army  on  the  Tunisian  territory  on  the  24th  of  July, 
and  encamped  it  on  the  site  of  the  ancient  Carthage. 
The  Moors  did  not  oppose  its  debarkation,  but  on  the 
approach  of  the  fleet  fled  in  dismay,  and  the  Saracenic 
prince,  for  whose  special  benefit  this  detour  had  been 
made,  treated  the  Frankish  monarch  as  an  enemy, 
and  threatened,  at  the  head  of  a  hundred  thousand 
men,  to  drive  him  into  the  sea.  No  encounter,  how- 
ever, took  place  between  the  hostile  troops,  for, 
beside  that  Louis  avoided  one  as  incompatible  with 
the  spiritual  design  of  his  mission,  the  Moors  had  no 
'  wish  to  measure  swords  with  the  Christian  chivalry ; 
but  they  harassed  the  Christian  army  by  desultory 
attacks  on  outposts  and  stragglers,  and  by  intercept- 
ing their  supplies;  and  these  distractions,  aided  by  the 
heat  of  the  climate,  the  want  of  water,  and  the  neces- 
sity of  feeding  on  salted  provisions  under  an  African 
sky,  caused  a  pestilence  to  break  out  in  the  crusading 
camp,  which,  in  a  few  short  weeks,  nearly  decimated 

*  Michaud,  iii.  p.  35. 


THE    EIGHTH    CRUSADE.  431 

the  hapless  army.  Night  and  day  the  Frankish 
soldiers  were  under  arms,  but  the  enemy  was  fugi- 
tive, and  when  sought  was  nowhere  to  be  found. 
Meanwhile  death  sped  his  way  through  the  ranks, 
Fatigue,  famine,  and  disease  did  their  work  but  too 
surely.  The  dead  were  so  numerous  that  it  was 
found  impossible  to  bury  them.  The  ditches  of  the 
camp  were  filled  with  carcasses  thrown  in  by  the 
heap.  The  stench  emitted  corrupted  the  air,  and  de- 
spair and  misery  overwhelmed  the  unhappy  cru- 
saders. The  Count  de  Vendome,  the  Count  de  la 
Marche,  Gaultier,  de  Nemours,  the  Lords  de  Mont- 
morency,  de  Pienne,  de  Bressac,  and  many  others  of 
the  highest  condition,  fell  before  the  fatal  epidemic; 
and  when  the  Duke  de  Nevers,  the  king's  son,  who 
had  been  born  at  Damietta  during  the  captivity  of 
his  father,  died,  the  hero  and  the  monarch  yielded  to 
the  man  and  the  father,  and  he  wept  bitterly.  At 
length  the  king  himself  fell  ill;  the  rude  medical  art 
of  the  age  did  its  best  for  him,  but  in  vain — the  hand 
of  fate  was  on  Louis  of  France — and  he  expired  tran- 
quilly in  his  camp,  on  the  shores  of  the  ancient 
Numidia,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  25th  of  August, 
J270. — Let  us  now  return  to  the  progress  of  the 
Eighth  and  last.  Crusade. 

In  the  defence  of  a  land  and  a  cause  which,  during 
two  centuries,  had  continually  exercised  the  valour, 
and  prodigally  wasted  the  blood  of  the  chivalry  of 
Christendom,  the  last  successful  exploits  of  heroism 


432 


THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 


Edward  I.  of  England. 

were  reserved  for  an  English  prince,  the  descendant 
of  those  illustrious  houses  of  Normandy  and  Planta- 
genet,  whose  prowess  had  so  often  been  signalized  on 
the  same  ensanguined  field.  Prince  Edward,  the 
future  monarch  of  England,  accompanied  by  his  faith- 
ful consort  Eleanor,  and  attended  by  his  kinsman 
Edmund  Crouchback,  Earl  of  Lancaster,  four  other 
earls,  four  barons,  and  a  gallant  but  slender  train  of 
knights  and  soldiers,  which  did  not  exceed  one  thou- 
sand men,  had  joined  the  French  army  in  Africa  be- 
fore the  death  of  Louis  IX. ;  and  the  abandonment  of 
the  Crusade  by  their  allies,  which  followed  that  event, 
might  have  absolved  the  small  English  force  from  the* 
prosecution  of  their  vows.  But  their  valiant  and 


THE    EIGHTH    CRUSADE.  433 

magnanimous  leader  swore,  that  though  every  other 
follower  should  desert  him,  he  would  still  proceed  to 
Palestine,  attended  only  by  his  groom  ;*  his  spirit  was 
emulated  by  every  English  heart ;  and  after  refresh- 
ing their  strength  during  the  winter  in  Sicily,  he 
sailed  in  the  spring  with  his  gallant  band  to  Acre.f 

The  arrival  of  Edward  in  that  port  once  more  re- 
kindled the  hopes  of  the  desponding  Latins ;  and  the 
long  memory  of  the  prowess  of  Coeur  de  Lion  had  still 
retained  sufficient  influence  in  the  East  to  appal  the 
spirit  of  the  Moslems  at  the  intelligence,  that  another 
hero  of  the  lion-hearted  race  approached  to  uphold 
the  banner  of  the  Cross.  The  Sultan  Bondocdar,  who 
had  carried  his  ravages  to  the  gates  of  Acre,  imme- 
diately retired  in  discouragement  at  the  report. J  The 
broken  remains  of  the  Latin  chivalry  of  Palestine 
eagerly  gathered  around  the  standard  of  Plantagenet ; 
and  though  the  total  force  which  the  Christian  State 

*  "Juravit  solito  Juramento  per  sanguinem  Domini,  inquiensj 
Quamvis  omnes  commilitiones  et  patriotae  mei  me  deserant,  ego 
tainen,  Fowino  custode  palufridi  mei,  (sic  enim  vocabatur  curator 
equi  sui,)  intrabo  Tholomaidam."  (He  swore  by  his  usual  oath,  the 
blood  of  the  Lord,  saying: — "Although  all  my  fellow-soldiers  and 
compatriots  desert  me,  yet  I,  with  Fowin,  the  keeper  of  my  palfrey^ 
will  enter  Tolamais.")  Rishanger,  Contin.,  Matt.  Paris,  p.  859. 

f  Rishanger,  p.  858,  859.  Matt.  Westminster,  (Ed.  Francofurti, 
A.  D.  1601,)  p.  400.  Chronica  de  Maflros,  (apud  Gale  et  Fell,  vol. 
iii.,)  p.  241.  Chronicon  Thomge  Wikes,  p.  94.  Chronica  Walteri 
Hemingford,  p.  590.  (Both  in  Gale,  vol  ii.) 

J  Both  Rishanger  and  Matthew  of  Westminster  (iibi.  sntpra)  de 
clare  that,  but  for  the  opportune  arrival  of  Edward,  Acre  was  to  Lay* 
been  surrendered  to  the  sultan  within  four  days. 

28 


434        THE  LAST  FOUR  CRUSADES. 

could  muster,  including  his  English  followers,  did  not 
exceed  seven  thousand  men,  Edward  boldly  mar- 
shalled this  scanty  army  for  offensive  hostilities 
against  the  infidels.  Advancing  from  Acre,  his 
achievements  justified  the  general  expectation  both 
of  his  enterprising  courage  and  of  his  military  skill. 
His  first  exploit,  the  surprise  and  defeat  of  a  large 
body  of  the  Mussulman  forces  in  the  field,  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  assault  of  Nazareth ;  and  in  the  dread- 
ful slaughter  which  preceded  and  followed  the  capture 
of  that  city,  he  equally  emulated  the  chivalric  valour 
and  the  fanatical  cruelty  of  the  earlier  champions  of 
the  Cross.*  But  the  reduction  of  Nazareth  closed  his 
brief  career  of  victory ;  his  English  followers  fell  rapid 
victims  to  the  Syrian  climate,  and  the  hero  himself 
was  already  stretched  on  a  sick  couch,  when  he  nar- 
rowly escaped  death  from  the  poisoned  dagger  of  an 
assassin.  Whether  the  villian  was  the  mere  hired 
emissary  of  a  Mussulman  emir,  or  one  of  the  few  sur- 
vivors of  that  fanatical  sect  of  the  mountain  chief, 
which  the  Moguls  were  supposed  to  have  extirpated,f 

*  In  his  first  surprise  of  the  infidels,  Edward  "  invenit  Sarracenos 
efc  uxores  eorum  cum  parvulis  suis  in  lecto :  quos  onines,"  coolly  con- 
tinues the  chronicler  of  Melrose,  "  ut  hostes  Christianse  fidei  occidit 
in  ore  gladii," — (he  found  the  Saracens  with  their  wives  and  little 
ones  in  bed — all  of  whom,  as  enemies  of  the  Christian  faith,  he  slew 
with  the  point  of  the  sword.)  P.  242. 

f  The  destruction  of  the  Syrian  assassins  by  the  Tartars  is  noticed 
by  Matt.  Paris,  p.  821,  (ad  an.  1257.)  "Circulo  ejusdem  anni, 
Tartar!  detestabilea  Assassinos  detestabiliores,  &c.,  destruxerunt,"— 


THE    EIGHTH    CRUSADE. 


435 


Attempt  to  assassinate  Edward. 

is  uncertain;  but  he  easily  obtained  a  private 
audience  of  Edward  under  pretence  of  a  confidential 
mission ;  and,  while  the  prince  was  reading  his  cre- 
dentials, he  drew  a  hidden  poniard,  and  aimed  a  blow 
at  his  intended  victim.  The  attack  was  so  unex- 
pected, that  Edward  received  several  wounds  before 
he  recovered  from  the  surprise,  when,  vigorously 
struggling  with  the  assassin,  he  felled  him  to  the 
floor,  and  instantly  despatched  him  with  his  own 

(In  the  course  of  this  year  the  detestable  Tartars  destroyed  the  more 
detestable  assassins.)  In  the  first  part  of  a  tedious  Dissertation  on  tho 
Assassins,  by  M.  Falconet,  read  before  the  French  Academy  of  In- 
scriptions, and  of  which  a  translation  is  printed  in  Johnes's  Joinville, 
(vol.  ii.  p.  287—328,)  an'atteinpt  is  made  to  prove  that  Paris  was  in 
enjr;  that  it  was  only  the  assassins  of  Persia,  a  kindred  and  more 
numerous  sect,  which  the  Tartars  destroyed ;  and  that  those  of  Syria, 
according  to  Abulfeda,  were  extirpated  by  the  Mamelukes  aboul 
A.  D.  1280. 


430  THE   LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

dagger.  As  the  weapon  had  been  poisoned,  the  life, 
of  the  prince  was  for  some  time  in  imminent  danger; 
but  a  leech  in  his  service  undertook  to  cut  away  the 
infected  flesh  from  his  wounds,  and  the  operation  was 
successful.* 

After  his  own  restoration  to  health,  the  wasting 
effects  of  disease  among  his  followers ;  the  total  inade- 
quacy of  his  remaining  force  to  any  further  enterprise 
of  importance;  the  failure  of  other  Christian  princes 
to  despatch  their  promised  succours  to  his  aid;  and 
intelligence  from  England  of  his  father's  dangerous 
illness  and  anxiety  for  his  return  :f  all  conspired  in 
inducing  Edward  to  listen  to  overtures  for  peace, 
which  were  extorted  from  the  Sultan  of  Egypt,  not 
less  by  the  experience  of  his  prowess  than  by  some 
new  troubles  which  had  broken  out  in  the  Mussulman 

*  Rishanger,  p.  859,  860.  Matt.  West.  p.  401.  Chron.  de  Mailros, 
(which  suddenly  breaks  off  in  the  midst  of  its  tale  of  the  attempt  to 
assassinate  Edward,)  p.  241,  ad  fin.  Wikes,  p.  96-98.  Henring- 
ford,  p.  590-592. 

Not  one  of  these  writers,  who  were  contemporary,  or  nearly  so, 
with  the  event,  knew  any  thing  of  that  beautiful  fiction,  the  creation 
of  a  much  later  age,  which  ascribes  the  recovery  of  Edward  to  tlie 
affectionate  devotion  of  his  consort  Eleanor  in  sucking  the  venom 
from  his  wounds.  Hemingford,  whose  account  is  very  circum- 
stantial, and  has  principally  been  followed  in  the  text,  notices  the 
presence  of  Eleanor,  the  demand  of  the  leech  that  she  should  be  re- 
moved from  the  chamber  of  her  lord  before  the  operation  was  per- 
formed for  his  cure,  and  the  gentle  violence  which  was  necessary  to 
withdraw  her  from  the  scene.  P.  591. 

f  The  letter  from  Henry  III.,  pressing  his  son's  return,  may  be 
»een  in  Rymer,  (Ed.  by  royal  command,  1816,)  vol.  i.  p.  487. 


THE     EIGHTH    CRUSADE.  437 

States.  The  mutual  necessities  of  the  sultan  and  of 
the  English  prince,  therefore,  produced  the  conclusion 
of  a  truce  between  the  infidels  and  the  Christians  in 
Palestine  for  ten  years;  and  after  a  residence  of  four- 
teen months  in  the  Holy  Land,  and  the  accomplish- 
ment of  a  seasonable  treaty,  which  had  alone  arrested 
the  progress  of  the  Mameluke  arms  and  prolonged,  for 
another  brief  period,  the  precarious  existence  of  the 
Latin  State,  Edward  bade  adieu  to  the  Syrian  shores, 
and  sailed,  with  his  few  surviving  followers,  for  his 
native  land.*  [A.  D.  1272.] 

After  the  departure  of  the  English  prince,  and 
while  the  remaining  Christian  possessions  on  the  coast 
of  Palestine  were  left  in  the  peace  which  he  had  won, 
some  last  abortive  efforts  were  used  to  interest  Europe 
in  their  preservation.  Pope  Gregory  X.,  who  was  re- 
siding in  Palestine  when  he  was  surprised  with  the 
news  of  his  elevation  to  the  tiara,  [A.  D.  1274,]  and  who 
had  been  a  sorrowing  witness  to  the  helpless  con- 
dition of  the  Latin  State,  made  an  earnest  endeavour, 
immediately  after  his  arrival  in  Europe,  to  arouse  the 
sovereigns  and  nations  of  Christendom  to  the  prepa- 

T 

ration  of  a  new  Crusade.  But  the  solitary  example, 
given  by  one  pontiff,  of  a  deep  sincerity  in  the  cause, 
only  served  to  prove  the  utter  extinction  of  the  cru- 
sading spirit.  Notwithstanding  his  labours,  seconded 
by  the  authority  of 'a  general  council  of  the  church 

*  Matt.  West,  p.  402.     Wikes,  p.  99.     Hcmingford,  p.  592. 


438  THE    LAS'*     FOUR    CRUSADES. 

which  he  assembled  at  Lyon,  he  could  only  obtain 
hollow  promises  of  devotion  to  the  service  of  the 
Cross  from  those  princes  who  desired  to  perpetuate 
his  favour,  and  who,  after  his  death,  evaded  the  fulfil- 
ment of  their  reluctant  vows.  Meanwhile,  however, 
the  Christians  in  Palestine,  during  eight  years,  were 
permitted,  by  the  good  faith  or  distraction  of  the  Mus- 
sulman councils,  to  enjoy  unmolested  a  peaceful  re- 
spite of  their  fate ;  and  that  interval  was  filled  only 
by  the  struggle  of  royal  pretensions  in  the  expiring 
Latin  kingdom.  Since  the  death  of  the  Emperor 
Frederic  II.,  the  baseless  throne  of  Jerusalem  had 
found  a  claimant  in  Hugh  de  Lusignan,  King  of 
Cyprus,  who,  as  lineally  descended  from  Alice, 
daughter  of  Queen  Isabella,  was,  in  fact,  the  next 
heir,  after  failure  of  issue  by  the  marriage  of  Frederic 
and  lolanta  de  Brienne.  His  claims  were  opposed  by 
the  partisans  of  Charles  of  Anjou,  King  of  the  Sicilies; 
that  wholesale  speculator  in  diadems,  who,  not  con- 
tented with  the  iniquitous  acquisition  of  his  Italian, 
realms,  and  the  splendid  dream  of  dismembering  the 
Greek  Empire,"  extended  his  grasp  to  the  ideal  crown 
of  Palestine.  He  rested  his  claim  upon  the  double 
pretensions  of  a  papal  title  to  all  the  forfeited  dignities 
of  the  imperial  house  of  Hohenstauffen,  and  of  a  bar- 
gain with  Mary  of  Antioch;  whose  rights,  although 
she  was  descended  only  from  a  younger  sister  of  Alice, 
he  had  eagerly  purchased.  But  the  prior  title  of  the 
bouse  of  Cyprus  was  more  generally  recognised  in 


THE     EIGHTH    CRUSADE.  439 

Palestine;  the  coronation  of  Hugh  had  been  cele- 
brated at  Tyre;  and  the  last  idle  pageant  of  regal 
state  in  Palestine  was  exhibited  by  the  race  of  Lu- 
signan.* 

At  length  the  final  storm  of  Mussulman  war  broke 
upon  the  phantom  king  and  his  subjects.  It  waa 
twice  provoked  by  the  aggressions  of  the  Latins  them- 
selves, in  plundering  the  peaceable  Moslem  traders, 
who  resorted,  on  the  faith  of  treaties,  to  the  Christian 
marts  on  the  Syrian  coast.  After  a  vain  attempt  to 
obtain  redress  for  the  first  of  these  violations  of  inter- 
national law,  Keladun,  the  reigning  sultan  of  Egypt 
and  Syria,  revenged  the  infraction  of  the  existing  ten 
years'  truce  by  a  renewal  of  hostilities  with  over- 
whelming force ;  yearly  repeated  his  ravages  of  the 
Christian  territory ;  and  at  length,  tearing  the  city 
and  county  of  Tripoli — the  last  surviving  great  fief  of 
the  Latin  kingdom — from  its  dilapidated  crown,  dic- 
tated the  terms  of  peace  to  its  powerless  sovereign. 
[A.  D.  1289.]  The  example  of  this  punishment,  and 

*  Mr.  Hallam,  following  Giannone,  has  fallen  into  some  inaccuracy, 
on  no  very  important  matter,  indeed,  in  stating  (Middle  Ages,  vol.  i. 
p.  371,  8vo.  ed.)  Mary  of  Antioch  to  have  been  the  legitimate  heiress 
of  Jerusalem  in  1272,  while  the  royal  line  of  Cyprus,  descended 
from  Alice,  eldest  sister  of  her  mother,  Melesinda,  had,  of  course, 
a  better  title.  Until  that  race  should  be  extinct,  the  house  of  Anjou 
could  only  rest  their  pretensions  on  the  lapsed  rights  of  Frederic  II. ; 
but  these  had  expired  with  his  posterity; -and,  in  short,  as  observed 
by  Mr.  Mills,  (Crusades,  vol.  ii,  p.  269,)  "the  House  of  Anjou  had  nc 
justcr  claim  to  the  throne  of  Jerusalem,  than  they  had  to  the  throne 
of  the  Two  Sicilies." 


440  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

the  authority  of  a  feeble  government,  were  insufficient 
to  prevent  a  repetition,  two  years  later,  on  the  part 
of  the  lawless  inhabitants  of  Acre,  of  similar  outrages 
upon  the  property  and  persons  of  the  Mussulman 
merchants ;  and  the  Sultan  Khatil,  the  son  of  Ke- 
ladun,  was  provoked,  by  a  new  denial  of  justice,  to 
utter  and  enforce  a  tremendous  vow  of  extermination 
against  the  perfidious  Franks.  At  the  liead  of  an  im- 
mense army  of  two  hundred  thousand  men,  the  Ma- 
meluke prince  entered  Palestine,  swept  the  weaker 
Christian  garrisons  before  him,  and  encamped  under 
the  towers  of  Acre.  [A.  D.  1291.]  That  city,  which, 
since  the  fall  of  Jerusalem;  had  been  for  a  century  the 
capital  of  the  Latin  kingdom,  was  now  become  the 
last  refuge  of  the  Christian  population  of  Palestine. 
Its  defences  were  strong,  its  inhabitants  numerous; 
but  any  state  of  society  more  vicious,  disorderly,  and 
helpless  than  its  condition,  can  scarcely  be  imagined. 
Within  its  walls  were  crowded  a  promiscuous  multi- 
tude, of  every  European  nation,  all  equally  disclaim- 
ing obedience  to  a  general  government,  and  enjoying 
impunity  for  every  crime  under  the  nominal  jurisdic- 
tion of  independent  tribunals.  Of  these  there  were 
no  less  than  seventeen ;  in  which  the  papal  legate,  the 
king  of  Jerusalem,  the  despoiled  great  feudatories  of 
his  realm,  the  three  military  orders,  the  colonies  of  the 
maritime  Italian  republics,  and  the  representatives  of 
the  princes  of  the  West,  all  arrogated  sovereign  rights, 
«id  all  abused  them  by  the  venal  protection  of  of- 


THE    EIGHTH    CRUSADE.  44"" 

fenders.  When,  therefore,  the  devoted  city  was  in- 
vested by  the  infidels,  we  need  not  wonder  that,  amid 
the  common  danger,  her  councils  were  without  concert, 
and  that,  with  an  immense  population,  the  vast  circuit 
of  her  walls  was  inadequately  manned.  All  the 
wretched  inhabitants  who  could  find  such  opportunites 
of  escape,  thronged  on  board  the  numerous  vessels  in 
the  harbour,  which  set  sail  for  Europe;  and  the  last 
defence  of  Acre  was  abandoned  to  about  twelve  thou- 
sand men,  for  the  most  part  the  soldiery  of  the  three 
military  orders.* 

From  that  gallant  chivalry,  the  Moslems  encoun- 
tered a  resistance  worthy  of  its  ancient  renown  and 
of  the  extremity  of  the  cause  for  which  its  triple  fra- 
ternity had  sworn  to  die.  But  the  whole  force  of  the 
Mameluke  empire,  in  its  yet  youthful  vigour,  had  been 
collected  for  their  destruction.  During  thirty-three 
days,  the  beseigers  incessantly  plied  a  long  train  of 
balistic  and  battering  engines  of  ljuge  dimensions  and 
prodigious  power  against  the  defences  of  the  city; 
various  parts  of  its  double  wall  were  beaten  down  or 
undermined;  and  at  length  the  fall  of  a  principal 
work,  of  which  the  fatal  importance  is  expressed  in 
the  original  relations  of  the  siege  by  its  title  of  "  the 
Cursed  Tower,"  opened  a  yawning  breach  into  the 
heart  of  the  place.  At  this  awful  "crisis,  the  recreant 
Lusignan,  who  wore  the  titular  crown  of  Jerusalem, 

*  De  Guignes,  lib.  xxi.  Sanutus,  lib.  iii.,  pars,  xiii.,  c.  20.  Gio« 
ranai  Villani,  (in  Script.  Rer.  ItaL,  vol.  xiii ,)  lib.  vii.  c.  144. 


442  THE    LAST    FOUR    CRUSADES. 

basely  abandoned  his  duty,  and  proved  himself  desti- 
tute of  the  only  qualities  which  might  have  conferred 
lustre  upon  his  ideal  dignity.  Secretly  withdrawing 
in  the  night  from  his  post,  he  seized  a  few  vessels  in 
the  port,  and  sailed  away  with  his  followers  to  Cyprus. 
Even  his  cowardly  flight  could  not  shake  the  con- 
stancy of  the  Teutonic  knights  whom  he  had  deserted 
in  the  Cursed  Tower,  and  who  continued  to  guard  its 
ruins.  But,  with  the  following  dawn,  their  post  was 
attacked  by  the  infidels  in  immense  force;  several 
times  were  the  assailants  repulsed  with  dreadful  car- 
nage, and  as  often  were  the  slain  replaced  by  fresh 
bands  of  the 'Moslems.  At  length,  after  most  of  the 
German  cavaliers  had  fallen  in  the  breach,  the  infidels, 
in  overpowering  numbers,  forced  a  passage  over  their 
lifeless  bodies ;  a  torrent  of  assailants  pouring  into  the 
place  swept  its  few  surviving  defenders  before  them ; 
and  Acre  was  irretrievably  lost.  Bursting  through 
the  city,  the  savage  victors  pursued  to  the  strand  the 
unarmed  and  fleeing  population,  who  had  .wildly 
sought  a  means  of  escape,  which  was  denied  not  less 
by  the  fury  of  the  elements  than  by  the  want  of  suf- 
ficient shipping.  By  the  relentless  cruelty  of  their 
pursuers,  the  sands  and  the  waves  were  dyed  with  the 
blood  of  the  fugitives ;  all  who  survived  -the  first  hor- 
rid massacre  were  doomed  to  a  hopeless  slavery ;  and 
the  last  catastrophe  of  the  Crusades  cost  life  or  liberty 
lo  sixty  thousand  Christians. 
Even  in  the  fatal  hour  in  which  Acre  fell,  the  he- 


THE    EIGHTH    CRUSADE.  443 

roes  of  the  Hospital  and  Temple  preserved  and  dis- 
played their  unconquerable  spirit.  Led  by  then 
grand-master,  the  knights  of  St.  John  sallied  from  the 
devoted  city,  carried  havoc  into  the  heart  of  the  in 
fidel  leaguer,  and  when,  overpowered  by  numbers,  all 
but  seven  of  their  order,  with  a  few  followers,  had 
been  left  on  the  field,  this  gallant  remnant  fought 
their  way  to  the  coast,  and  effected  an  embarkation. 
Meanwhile,  for  three  days  after  the  fall  of  the  city, 
the  Templars  continued  to  defend  their  monastic  for- 
tress within  its  walls.  Their  valiant  grand-master, 
Pierre  de  Beaujeu,  whose  military  skill  and  personal 
heroism  had  been  conspicuous  throughout  the  siege, 
was  killed  by  a  poisoned  arrow ;  but  the  obstinate  re- 
sistance of  his  brethren  obtained  from  the  sultan  the 
promise  of  a  free  and  honourable  retreat.  When  the 
Red  Cross-Knights  issued  from  their  fortress  on  the 
faith  of  this  assurance,  they  were  assailed  by  the  law- 
less insults  of  the  Mussulman  hosts ;  they  impatiently 
renewed  the  contest ;  and  most  of  their  number  were 
slain  on  the  spot.  The  few  who  escaped  forced  a  pas- 
sage with  their  swords  through  the  Mameluke  lines, 
fled  into  the  interior  country,  and  even  there  resumed 
the  war,  until  they  were  ultimately  driven  again  to 
the  coast,  and  effected  their  escape  by  sea  to  Cyprus. 
Theirs  was  the  last  effort  for  the  defence  of  Palestine ; 
the  Christian  population  of  the  few  maritime  towns 
which  had  yet  been  retained  fled  to  Cyprus,  or  sub- 
mitted their  necks,  without  a  struggle,  to  the  Moslem 


444      THE  LAST  FOUR  CRUSADES. 

yoke;  and,  after  a  bloody  contest  of  two  hundred 
years,  the  possession  of  the  Holy  Land  was  FINALLY 
abandoned  to  the  enemies  of  the  Cross.* 

The  fall  of  Acre  closes  the  annals  of  the  Crusades. 
But  the  mere  loss  of  that  last  possession  of  the  Latins 
on  the  Syrian  shore  would  not  have  put  a  term  to  the 
hopes  and  efforts  of  Christendom  for  the  recovery  of 
the  Holy  Sepulchre,  if  the  spirit  itself  which  prompted 
every  preceding  enterprise  for  the  same  object  had  not 
already  expired.  A  century  earlier,  the  capture  of 
Jerusalem  by  Saladin  had  sufficed  to  fill  all  Europe 
with  grief  and  horror,  and  had  impressed  the  three 
greatest  monarchs  of  the  age  with  the  conviction  that 
the  demands  of  religion  and  honour  rendered  it  equally 
imperative  upon  them  personally  to  revenge  the  dis- 
grace of  Christendom,  and  to  chastise  the  insolence  of 
the  enemies  of  God.  At  a  still  later  epoch,  even  the 
fall  of  a  remote  dependency  of  the  Latin  kingdom  of 
Jerusalem  had  awakened  the  most  intense  anxiety 
and  alarm  in  Europe  for  the  safety  of  the  Holy  Se- 
pulchre ;  and  the  catastrophe  of  Edessa  had  attracted 
the  sovereigns  and  national  chivalry  of  France  and 
Germany  to  the  plains  of  Asia.  At  every  cry  for 
succour  from  the  Christians  in  Palestine,  until  the 
fatal  issue  of  the  Fifth  Crusade,  myriads  of  warlike 
and  fanatical  volunteers,  of  the  noblest  as  well  the 
meanest  blood  of  Europe,  had  eagerly  responded  to 

*  Sanutus,  lib.  iii  pars.  xii.  c.  21-23.    De  Guignes  arid  G.  Villani, 


THE    EIGHTH    CRUSADE.  445 

the  call;  and  their  devotion  to  the  cause  was  much 
more  frequently  chilled  and  diverted  from  its  support 
by  the  tortuous  and  sordid  policy  of  the  papal  see, 
than  by  any  lack  of  sincerity  or  change  of  purpose  in" 
themselves.  Yet,  after  the  fall  of  Acre,  no  exhorta- 
tions which  succeeding  pontiffs  strenuously  repeated 
for  fifty  years,  could  rouse  the  princes  and  people  of 
the  West  to  any  earnest  design  for  the  revival  of  the 
Crusades.*  Nor  was  it  that  Europe  had  become  less 
martial  or  restless  in  the  fourteenth  than  it  had  been 
in  the  twelfth  century.  Warfare  still  constituted  the 
only  serious  occupation  of  her  princes  and  nobles — its 
pursuit  the  only  path  of  honourable  distinction,  its 
image  almost  their  only  pastime;  and  the  flame  of 
chivalry — which  we  have  elsewhere  characterized, 
after  a  great  writer,  as  at  once  a  cause  and  conse- 
quence of  the  Crusades — never  burned  so  brightly  as 
in  the  age  which  immediately  succeeded  the  extinction 
of  those  enterprises. 

The  cessation  of  the  Crusades  was  assuredly,  then, 
not  produced  by  any  abatement  of  the  love  of  arms, 
or  of  the  thirst  of  glory  in  the  chivalry  of  Europe. 
But  the  union  with  these  martial  qualities  of  that 
fanatical  enthusiasm  which  inspired  the  Christian 

*  An  enumeration  of  these  abortive  efforts  of  the  popes  to  rekindle 
the  enthusiasm  of  Europe  would  be  superfluous  in  this  place,  but 
may  be  found  in  Mr.  Mill's  History  of  tlie  Onisades,  vol.  ii.  ch.  vii- 
— a  work  to  which  we  take  this  last  occasion  of  expressing  our  great 
obligations. 


446  THE     LAST     FOUR     CRUSADES. 

warriors  of  the  eleventh  century,  had  been  slowly  dis- 
solved ;  and  the  abandonment  of  Palestine  to  the  un- 
disturbed possession  of  the  Moslems  is  clearly  to  be 
traced  to  the  gradual  but  total  exhaustion  in  the 
European  mind  of  the  same  superstitious  phrensy 
which,  pervading  every  rank  of  society,  had  wrought 
such  stupendous  efforts  for  the  possession  of  the  Holy 
Land.  The  long  duration  of  this  wild  passion,  indeed, 
is  far  more  astonishing  than  its  final  decay ;  and,  in- 
stead of  being  a  subject  of  surprise  that  it  at  length 
expired,  it  may  rather  provoke  our  wonder  that  so 
strange  an  enthusiasm  should  so  tenaciously  have  sur- 
vived all  experience  of  disappointment  and  calamity. 
In  the  thirteenth  century,  however — a  full  generation 
before  the  fall  of  Acre — we  begin  clearly  to  discern  the 
decline  of  the  crusading  spirit  in  the  evidence  both  of 
historical  and  poetical  literature ;  and  when  the  pious 
follower  of  St.  Louis,  and  faithful  chronicler  of  his 
deeds,  refused  to  accompany  him  in  his  second  ex- 
pedition,*—when  the  religious  obligation  of  wresting 

*  "  The  King  of  France  and  the  King  of  Navarre  pressed  me 
strongly  to  put  on  the  Cross,  and  undertake  a  pilgrimage  with  them ; 
but  I  replied,  that  when  I  was  before  beyond  sea,  on  the  service  of 
God,  the  officers  of  the  King  of  France  had  so  grievously  oppressed 
my  people  that  they  were  in  a  state  of  poverty,  insomuch  that  we 
should  have  great  difficulty  to  recover  ourselves;  and  that  I  saw 
clearly,  were  I  to  undertake  another  Croisade,  it  would  be  the  total 
ruin  of  my  people.  I  have  heard  many  say  since,  that  those  who 
had  advised  him  Ax>  this  Croisade  had  been  guilty  of  a  great  crime, 
and  had  sinned  deadly."  Joinville,  (Johnes's  Edition,)  vol.  i.  p 
241 


THE    EIGHTH    CRUSADE.  447 

the  sepulchre  of  Christ  from  the  hands  of  the  infidels 
became  the  subject  of  bold  and  jocular  denial  in  a 
popular  poem,* — we  may  feel  assured  that  the  noble 
and  the  minstrel  already  spoke  the  altered  sentiments 
of  their  times. 

The  causes  to  which  this  extinction  of  fanatical  zeal 
in  Europe  may  be  referred  are  obvious,  and  have  often 
been  exposed.  Among  them,  the  most  immediate  was, 
assuredly,  a  growing  conviction  of  the  hopelessness  of 
success.  After  the  signal  and  tremendous  failure  of 
the  Fifth  Crusade  in  Egypt,  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  any  mighty  armament  could  ever  again  have 
been  directed  to  the  same  scene,  if  the  personal  cha- 
racter and  influential  example  of  St.  Louis,  rather 
than  the  spontaneous  ardour  of  his  nobles,  had  not 
produced  his  two  calamitous  expeditions.  In  the  in- 
termediate enterprise  of  the  Emperor  Frederic  II.,  his 
tardy  if  not  reluctant  'voyage  to  the  Holy  Land,  as 
well  as  the  whole  tenor  of  his  conduct  respecting  the 
affairs  of  his  Eastern  kingdom,  was  evidently  induced 


*  In  the  Fabliaux  of  Le  Grand  d'Aussy,  (vol.  ii.  p.  163,)  trans- 
lated in  the  kindred  work  of  Way,  (vol.  ii.  p.  227,)  is  preserved  a  very 
curious  specimen  by  Rutuboeuf,  a  French  rhymer  of  the  age  of  St. 
Louis,  in  which  a  crusader  and  non-crusader  are  made  to  discuss  the 
duty  of  assuming  the  Cross.  Throughout  this  dialogue,  under  pre- 
text of  rebuking  the  levity  of  the  non-crusader,  it  is  evident  that,  the 
sly  minstrel  intended  to  ridicule  the  expiring  folly  of  his  times;  nor 
would  it  be  easy,  in  more  serious  terms,  to  offer  a  better  exposure  of 
the  practical  evils  which  the  Crusades  had  inflicted  upon  their  vo- 
taries, than  is  presented  in  this  lively  satire. 


448  THE    LAST    FOUR     CRUSADES. 

much  more  by  political  than  religious  considerations; 
and  the  efforts  of  our  two  English  princes,  Richard  of 
Cornwall,  and  his  nephew  Edward,  if  inspired  by  a 
more  generous  motive  of  glory  or  devotion,  were  un- 
sustained  examples  of  individual  heroism,  which 
served  only  to  prove  that  their  spirit  was  no  longer 
supported  by  the  popular  enthusiasm  and  hopes  of 
their  age.  None  of  those  leaders  were  followed  by 
the  immense  and  various  array  of  the  Western 
nations,  which  had  thronged  around  the  consecrated 
banners  of  their  precursors  in  the  first  five  Crusades ; 
the  defence  of  Palestine  itself  was  abandoned  almost 
entirely  to  the  military  orders ;  and  perhaps  it  was 
only  the  institution  of  those  martial  and  religious 
fraternities,  and  the  revolutions  and  consequent  weak- 
ness of  the  Mohammedan  States,  which  protracted 
the  struggle  through  the  last  seventy  years  of  its 
duration. 

But,  beyond  all  question,  the  primary  cause  which 
both  defeated  the  object  of  the  Crusades,  and 
awakened  Christendom  from  its  long  dream  of  fa- 
natical madness,  was  the  conduct  of  the  papal  see. 
Sincere'as  Pope  Urban  II.  and  some  of  his  successors 
undoubtedly  were  in  the  promotion  of  these  under- 
takings, the  temptation  of  diverting  the  general  en- 
thusiasm to  the  profit  of  its  own  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral power  soon  became  too  strong  to  be  resisted  by 
the  selfish  ambition  "and  cupidity  of  the  court  of 
Rome.  Accordingly,  the  service  of  the  Cross  became 


THE     EIGHTH    CRUSADE.  449 

the  frequent  pretence  for  pecuniary  exactions  to  fill 
the  papal  coffers  ;*  next,  crusaders  were  allowed  and 
even  encouraged  to  commute  their  vows  for  money ; 
and,  finally,  the  same  spiritual  indulgences,  or  pardons 
for  sin,  which  had  been  the  great  inducement  to 
persons  of  all  ranks  to  engage  in  the  earlier  Crusades,f 
were  openly  and  shamelessly  sold.  Moreover,  by  an 
easy  enlargement  of  the  crusading  principle,  the 
sacred  duty  and  merit  of  combating  the  infidel  foes 
of  God  was  first  extended  to  the  extirpation  of  heresy 
among  Christians  by  the  sword ;  and  this  doctrine  re- 
quired to  be  stretched  but  a  point  further,  to  reach  all 
the  temporal  enemies  of  the  church,  or,  in  other  words? 
every  political  opponent  of  the  reigning  pontiff. 

Innocent  III.  was  the  first  of  the  popes  who  applied 
the  religious  enthusiasm  of  Europe  to  this  double 
object  of  taxation  and  persecution.  The  Crusade 
which  he  directed  against  the  Albigenses,  was  the 
earliest  diversion  of  the  martial  fanaticism  of  the 
Middle  Ages  from  its  original  object;"  and  the  in- 
dulgences which  he  lavished  upon  all  who  assumed 


*  Sufficient  examples  of  this  fact,  in  the  case  of  England, 
have  already  been  cited  in  the  present  chapter  from  Matthew  Paris, 
p.  339,  4(31,  463,  &c. ;  nor  can  it  be  doubted  that  the  same  conduct 
wa.«  pursued  in  other  parts  of  Europe. 

•f  The  premise  of  spiritual  indulgences  and  pardons  is  expressly 
mentioned  by  Villchardouin  as  among  the  primary  motives  of  the 
warriors  who  engaged  in  the  Fourth  Crusade.  Et  mult  sen  croisi- 
erent,  porcr,  que  li  pardons  ere  si  c/ran.  Par.  No.  1.  (And  many 
took  the  Cross  because  that  the  pardons  were  so  great.) 

29 


450       THE  LAST  FOUR  CRUSADES. 

the  Cross  in  that  atrocious  warfare,  were  more  ex 
tensive  than  any  which  had  been  promised  for  the  de- 
liverance of  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  The  conduct  of  In- 
nocent in  converting  the  Saladine  tithe,  which  had 
heen  first  levied  by  general  and  voluntary  consent 
throughout  Europe,  into  a  compulsory  tax  upon  the 
clergy,  was,  indeed,  more  legitimate  in  its  purpose. 
But  though,  as  we  formerly  observed,  that  loftiness  of 
spirit  which  characterized  that  celebrated  pontiff  may 
redeem  his  memory  from  any  suspicion  of  mean  or 
sordid  motives,,  the  example  which  he  thus  set  had 
very  important  results  under  his  successors,  not  only 
in  disgusting  the  ecclesiastical  orders  with  the  prosecu 
tion  of  holy  wars,  which  were  made  the  pretext  of 
plundering  their  revenues,  but  also  in  -  encouraging 
that  spirit  of  resistance  to  the  papal  exactions  which 
may  be  numbered  among  the  remote  causes  of  the 
Reformation.* 

It  can  scarcely  be  necessary,  in  this  place,  to  remind 
the  reader  of  the  more  flagrant  abuses  of  the  cru- 
sading principle  which  were  so  frequently  committed 
by  the  successors  of  Innocertt  III.  During  a  period 
of  forty  years,  every  war  in  which  they  pursued  their 

*  This  is  evidently  the  opinion  of  a  writer  of  great  research  and 
celebrity,  though  he  shrinks  from  stating  it  broadly  :  Peut-on  en  con- 
clure  que  les  Croisades  soient  la  cause  de  la  guerre  des  Hussites  et  de 
la  Reformation  de  Luther  ?  (May  we  not  then  conclude  that  the 
Crusades  were  the  cause  of  the  war  of  the  Hussites,  and  of  the 
Reformation  of  Luther  ?)  Heeren,  Essai  sur  I' Influence  des  Croi* 
tades,  Paris.  1808,  p.  176. 


THE     EIGHTH    CRUSADE.  451 

unrelenting  hostility  against  the  imperial  house  of 
Hohenstaufferi,  from  the  first  excommunication  of 
Frederic  II.  until  the  fall  of  his  grandson  Conradin, 
was  audaciously  invested  with  the  title  of  a  Crusade, 
and  its  supporters  were  rewarded  with  the  same  privi- 
leges as  the  Christian  warriors  in  Palestine.  One  of 
these  pontiffs,  Clement  IV.,  during  the  contest  be- 
tween Charles  of  Anjou  and  Manfred  for  the  crown 
of  the  Sicilies,  even  prevented  large  bodies  of  cru- 
saders from  proceeding  to  the  Holy  Land,  by  inviting 
them,  with  the  promise  of  equal  indulgences,  to  ex- 
change the  perilous  fulfilment  of  their  vows  in  the 
IJast,  for  the  lighter  service  of  attacking  his  political 

« 

enemy  in  Italy. 

It  would  be  a  waste  of  words  to  enlarge  upon  the 
serious  injury  sustained  by  the  Christian  cause  in 
Palestine  through  these  abuses,  or  to  describe  the 
ridicule  and  scandal  which  were  thrown  upon  the 
crusading  principle  itself,  by  its  prostitution  to  pur- 
poses too  grossly  temporal  long  to  delude  even  the 
blindest  superstition.  Nor  were  the  shameless  ex- 
pedients less  palpable  by  which  the  papal  court  and 
its  agents,  in  the  same  age,  frequently  impeded  the 
religious  enterprises,  and  disappointed  the  zeal  of, 
'  society,  in  order  to  embezzle  the  immense  sums  which 
were  collected  for  the  ostensible  service  of  the  Cross. 
Of  the  extent  of  these  frauds  we  have  cited  abundant 
evidence,  even  from  the  monastic  annalists  of  our  own 
country  ;  and  their  effects  could  not  fail  to  extinguish 


452       THE  LAST  FOUR  CRUSADES. 

in  disgust  the  last  fitful  gleams  of  the  ciusading 
fanaticism,  since  such  fruitless  exactions  fell  less 
severely  on  the  poor  and  ignorant  commonalty,  than 
on  those  ecclesiastical  and  noble  orders  who,  by  their 
riches  and  intelligence,  were  more  interested,  and 
better  qualified  to"  expose  and  resent  the  dishonest 
artifices  of  the  papal  policy.* 

*  The  popular  belief,  which  held  that  pilgrimages  to  various 
shrines  of  Europe  were  scarcely  less  efficacious  than  the  more 
arduous  journey  to  the  Holy  Land,  has  sometimes  been  numbered 
among  the  causes  of  the  decline  of  the  crusading  spirit ;  but  it  seema 
to  have  been  rather  a  consequence  of  the  impossibility  of  visiting  Je- 
rusalem. At  least,  the  institution  of  the  sacred  festival  of  the  jubilee 
by  which  Pope  Boniface  VIII.  drew  an  immense  concourse  o,f  pil- 
grims to  Rome,  in  the  last  year  of  the  thirteenth  century,  to  receive 
a  general  pardon  for  their  sins,  must  be  regarded  only  as  a  profitable 
expedient  consequent  upon  the  loss  of  the  holy  places  in  the  East, 
which  had  previously  attracted  the  stream  of  devotion. 


CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  CRUSADES. 


453 


CHAPTER  VI. 


HE  causes  which  produced  and  ex- 
tinguished the  Crusades  are  so  evident, 
as  to  have  led  most  inquirers  to  a  com- 
mon conclusion  on  their  nature  and 
operations;  but,  in  their  estimate  of 
the  consequences  of  these  memorable  expeditions 
upon  the  political,  moral,  and  religious  aspect  of 
society,  scarcely  two  historians  of  eminence  are  agreed. 


454        CONSEQUENCES    OF    THE    CRUSADES. 

If  we  are  to  believe  one  celebrated  writer,  the  most 
sanguinary  and  destructive  wars  which  fanaticism  ever 
produced,  were  the  sources  of  unmingled  good;*  if  we 
are  to  adopt  the  judgment  of  another,  yet  more  dis- 
tinguished, the  principle  and  effects  of  the  Crusades 
were  analogous  in  their  baneful  tendency,  and  equally 
injurious  in  their  influence  upon  knowledge  and  civili- 
zation.f  According  to  a  third  reasoner,  those  enter- 
prises enormously  augmented  the.  papal  power,  and 
aggravated  the  prevailing  superstitions  ;J  by  a  fourth 
they  are  numbered,  with  some  hesitation,  indeed, 
among  the  beneficial  causes  of  the  great  reformation 
of  religion. 1 1  Again,  though  the  first  writer  to 
whom  we  have  here  alluded  thought  he  could  discern 
in  these  wild  expeditions  the  earliest  gleams  of  light, 
which  tended  to  dispel  barbarism  and  ignorance,  and 
was  led  to  discover  in  them  the  dawn  of  all  social  im- 
provement in  Europe,  the  ablest  historian  of  the  Cru- 
sades in  our  own  times  has  denied  almost  all  per- 
manence to  their  effects.^  And  lastly,  while  a  disci- 
ple of  the  blind  school  of  fatalism  has  seen  in  the  con- 


*  Robertson,  History  of  Charles  V.  &c.y  Introduction,  sec.  1. 

f  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall,  &c.,  ch.  Ixi. 

|  Mosheira,  Eccles.  History,  Cent.  xi.  p.  i.  c.  1.  sec.  8. 

||  Heeren,  Essai  sur  I  Influence  des  Croisades,  p.  139-176. 

1  Mills,  ^History  of  the  Crusades,  vol.  ii.  c.  8.  Such  seems  also  to 
be  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Hallara  ;  although  it  is  to  be  gathered  less  from 
expressed  reasoning  than  from  the  absence  of  much  reference  to  the 
effects  of  the  Crusades,  in  his  View  of  the  Progress  of  Society  during 
the  Middle  Ages. 


CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  CRUSADES.    455 

* 

flict  of  Europe  and  Asia  only  some  fortuitous  advan- 
tages,* the  eloquent  champion  of  a  religious  philo 
sophy  of  history  has,  with  a  far  happier  spirit  of 
reverential  inquiry,  been  contented  to  trace  the  bene- 
ficial designs  of  Omnipotence  through  the  mingled 
evil  and  good  of  this,  like  every  other,  convulsion  of 
the  political  and  moral  world.f 

The  value  of  these  various  and  conflicting  opinions 
may  perhaps  best  be  ascertained  by  a  distinct,  though, 
within  our  narrow  limits,  necessarily  a  brief  exami- 
nation of  the  forms  in  which  the  Crusades  were  likely 
to  act  upon  the  condition  of  Europe;  in  their  influ- 
ence upon  religion,  upon  international  power,  upon 
internal  government,  upon  commerce  and  learning, 
and  lastly  upon  social  morals  and  civilization  in 
general. 

I.  With  respect  to  religion,  when  we  consider  that 
the  Crusades  were  the  sources,  of  a  vast  increase  of 
power  and  wealth,  and  consequently  of  luxury  and 
corruption,  in  the  Romish  Church;  when  we  re- 
member that  the  detestable  establishment  of  the  In 
quisition,  and  the  scandalous  traffic  of  indulgences  foi 
sin  at  least  originated  in  the  perversion  of  the  crusad- 
ing enthusiasin;  it  is  impossible  to  deny  the  conclu- 
sion, that  the  immediate  effects  of  that  fanatical  spirit 
were  extremely  pernicious.  And  it  is  probably  the 
superficial  view  of  these  temporary  evils  which  has 

*  Heider,  Outlines  of  a  Philosophy  of  the  History  of  Man,  quoted  in 
f  Miller,  PKilo&ophy  of  Modern  History,  vol.  iii.  lect.  xxiv. 


456    CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  CRUSADES. 

misled  many  writers  who,  in  natural  and  well-founded 
disgust  at  the  cruelty  and  impurity  with  which  they 
stained  the  holiness  of  Christianity,  have  overlooked 
the  salutary  reaction  which  they  necessitated.  Such 
inquirers,  in  fact,  in  passing  an  unqualified  judgment 
on  the  mischievous  results  of  the  Crusades,  have  not 
distinguished  between  the  proximate  and  ultimate 
consequences  of  those  enterprises.  For  if,  as  they  un- 
doubtedly did,  the  corruptions  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
produced  the  reformation  of  religion,  the  very  evils 
engendered  by  the  Crusades,  in  nurturing  and  matur- 
ing the  intolerable  growth  of  ecclesiastical  abuses, 
must  have  essentially  hastened  the  season  of  their 
correction. 

II.  The  consequences  of  the  Crusades,  in  affecting 
the  distribution  of  international  power,  is  a  question 
which  admits  of  less  doubt.  The  opinion,  once  enter- 
tained, that  those  expeditions  were  instrumental  in 
arresting  the  progress  of  the  Mohammedan  arms, 
seems  universally  exploded ;  nor  can  it  be  proved  that 
they  ultimately  produced  the  least  change  in  the  ex- 
ternal disposition  of  any  of  the  European  states, 
except  the  maritime  Italian  republics.  We  have 
seen,  indeed,  that  applications  from  the,  Greek  Empire 
to  the  pope  and  the  western  potentates,  for  succour 
against'  the  Seljukian  Turks,  preceded  the  First  Cru- 
sade ;  and  it  is  true  that  Alexius  Comnenus  profited 

*  Hallam,  Middle  Ages. 


CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  CRUSADES.   457 

by  the  successes  of  the  Latins,  to  recover  a  con 
siderable  part  of  Asia  Minor  from  the  infidels.  But, 
before  the  crusaders  traversed  that  region,  the  Selju- 
kian  power  had  already  obeyed  the  usual  fate  of 
Asiatic  dynasties,  in  internal  decay  and  partition; 
51  nd  the  real  peril  of  Constantinople  from  the  Turks 
in  that  age  was  already  past,  when  her  emperor  was 
oppressed  by  the  arrival  of  allies  scarcely  less  danger- 
ous. The  temporary  advantages  which  the  Greek 
Emperor  extracted  from  the  victorious  passage  of 
Godfrey  of  Bouillon  and  his  compeers  were  never  re- 
newed; and  we  may  agree  with  a  judicious  historian,* 
that  whatever  obligations  might  be  due  to  the  first 
crusaders  from  the  Eastern  Empire,  were  cancelled  ly 
their  descendants  one  hundred  years  afterwards,  wh(n 
the  fourth  in  number  of  those  expeditions  was  turned 
to  the  subjugation  of  Constantinople  itself.  Certain  it 
is,  that  the  Byzantine  Empire  never  recovered  fror,  i 
the  shock  and  dismemberment  which  attended  tlit 
Latin  conquest;  and  the  silent  revival  and  growth  of 
the  new  Turkish  power  in  the  mountains  of  Asia 
Minor,  which  finally  overthrew  the  Greek  Empire 
and  planted  the  banner  of  the  Crescent  on  the  towers 
of  Constantinople,  were  in  no  degree  connected  with, 
and  could  not  be  retarded  by,  the  contest  of  the  cru- 
saders with  the  Sultans  of  Damascus  and  Cairo  for  the 
possession  of  the  Syrian  shore.  In  Western  Europe 


*  Hallain,  Middle  Ages,  vol.  ii.  p.  182. 


458    CONSEQUENCES  OF  TUE  CKUSADES. 

itself,  the  Crusades  left  absolutely  no  consequences  in 
the  political  connection  of  the  Latin  kingdoms;  and 
we  have  only  to  compare  their  extent  at  the  close  of 
the  llth  and  of  the  13th  centuries,  to  assure  ourselves 
that  neither  the  fate  of  a  single  dynasty,  nor  the 
boundaries  and  relative  strength  of  nations,  had  at  all 
been  affected  by  the  vicissitudes  of  the  fanatical  con- 
test in  which  they  had  shared. 

III.  The  influence  of  that  contest  on  the  internal 
government  and  constitution  of  the  feudal  kingdoms 
of  Europe  is  a  distinct  and  'more  difficult  problem. 
Among  the  benefits,  in  these  respects,  which  had  been 
attributed  to  the  Crusades,  are  the  firmer  establish- 
ment of  regal  authority,  the  depression  of  the  feudal 
aristocracy,  the  gradual  deliverance  of  the  rural  popu- 
lation from  predial  servitude,  and  the  growth  of  mu- 
nicipal freedom.  The  era  of  the  Crusades  was  as- 
suredly one  of  active  and  rapid  improvement  in  social 
order  and  civilization;  but,  so  far  as  opposite  changes 
are  discernible  in  the  feudal  kingdoms  at  the  close  of 
the  Crusades,  such  results  can  scarcely,  upon  any 
sound  principle  of  reasoning,  be  referred  to  a  single 
and  common  cause  in  the  influences  of  those  enter- 
prises. Now,  the  same  period  witnessed  the  triumph 
of  the  crown  over  feudalism  in  France,  the  foundation 
of  constitutional  freedom  upon  the  ruins  of  royal 
tyranny  in  England,  and  the  completion  of  the  aris- 
tocratic and  municipal  privileges  of  Germany.  In  the 
first  of  these  countries,  it  has  been  proved,  that  of  all 


CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  CRUSADES.   459 

the  great  and  arriere  fiefs,  the  annexation  of  which  to 
ihe  crown  consolidated  the  royal  power  during  the 
Crusades,  not  one  lapsed  by  the  extinction  of  a  feudal 
house  in  those  wars,  and  only  one,  the  county  of 
Bourg^s,  appears  clearly  to  have  been  acquired  by 
purchase  from  a  chieftain  who  had  taken  the  Cross.* 
In  England,  on  the  contrary,  if  the  Crusades  had  any 
effect  upon  the  regal  authority,  it  was  injurious.  The 
sale  of  the  royal  domains  by  Richard  I.  to  defray  the 
cost  of  his  expedition  to  Palestine,  tended,  indeed,  to 
throw  the  crown,  by  the  dimunition  of  its  revenues, 
into  dependence  upon  the  aristocracy;  but  the  cir- 
cumstances which  favoured  the  struggle  of  that  body 
against  his  successors — the  mingled  tyranny  and  pu- 
sillanimity of  John,  and  the  total  incapacity  of  his 
feeble  son — were  altogether  foreign  to  the  present 
subject  of  inquiry.  In  Germany,  it  is  needless  to  re- 
mind the  reader,  that  the  fall  of  the  house  of  Hohen- 
stauffen,  and  the  consequent  extinction  of  the  imperial 
authority,  were  as  totally  unconnected  with  the  result 
of  the  Crusades.  In  a  word,  how  is  a  belief  in  the 
general  depression  of  the  feudal  aristocracy,  through 
their  share  in  those  costly  and  distant  enterprises,  to 
be  reconciled  with  their  triumph,  in  the  same  ages, 
over  the  royal  and  imperial  power  in  England  and  in 
Germany  ? 

*  Heeren,  Etsai  sur  V Influence,  des  Croisades,  p.  181-185;  Mills, 
History  of  Ow  Crusades,  vol.  ii.  pp.  351-354  ;  and  the  authorities  there 
cited. 


460        CONSEQUENCES    OF    T1IE    CRUSADES. 

Equally  difficult  would  it  be  to  show  any  percept 
ible  amelioration  in  the  condition  of  the  peasantry  of 
Europe  through  the  influence  of  the  Crusades;  for,  at 
the  close  of  the  15th  century,  the  chains  of  feudal 
tyranny  remained  unbroken ;  the  mass  of  the  rural 
population  was  still  in  bondage  to  the  soil,  and,  in 
the  following  age,  the  frightful  insurrections  of  the 
populace  in  France  and  England  reveal  the  con- 
tinuance of  that  wretched  state  of  servitude  which 
goaded  their  order  to  desperation.*  There  is,  there- 
fore, neither  a  shadow  of  evidence,  nor  even  a  proba- 
bility, to  warrant  the  hypothesis,  that  the  condition 
of  the  serfs  of  the  feudal  system  wras  improved  by  the 
events  of  the  Crusades-;  scarcely  any  contemporary 
though  accidental  changes,  in  this  respect,  can  be 
traced  in  the  same  period;  and  the  relaxation  of 
predial  servitude  must  be  referred  altogether  to  later 
ages. 

There  is,  however,  more  reason  to  conclude,  though 


*  It  is  singular  that  Gibbon,  while  denying  in  general  all  beneficial 
consequences  to  the  Crusades,  and  contending  that  they  checked 
rather  than  forwarded  the  maturity  of  Europe,  should  number  them 
"  among  the  causes  which  undermined  the  Gothic  edifice"  of  Feu- 
dalism ;  and  assert  that  the  poverty  of  the  barons,  whose  estates 
were  dissipated  in  these  expeditions,  extorted  from  them  "  those 
charters  of  freedom  which  unlocked  the  fetters  of  the  slave,  and 
secured  the  farm  of  the  peasant."  Of  such  manumission  there  is  no 
evidence  whatever.  It  is  no  less  singular  that  the  great  historian,  in 
adopting  this  fanciful  theory,  should  have  overlooked,  or  at  least 
omitted,  all  consideration  of  the  real  and  positive  benefits  which 
accrued  to  commerce  from  the  Crusades. 


CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  CRUSADES.   461 

rather  from  general  deductions  than  special  proofs, 
that  the  growth  of  municipal  independence  was  at 
least  favoured  by  the  Crusades.  Not  that  even  thia 
assertion  is  to  be  received  without  great  qualifica- 
tion ;  for  the  liberties  of  the  inland  cities  of  Northern 
Italy  arose  before  the  commencement  of  those  enter- 
prises, and  were  lost  before  their  conclusion  ;*  in 
Germany,  also  many  towns  on  the  Rhine  had  already, 
in  the  llth  century,  obtained  important  privileges 
from  Henry  IV.,  in  reward  for  their  fidelity  to  that 
emperor,  during  his  disastrous  contest  with  the 
papacy  ;f  and  in  our  own  country,  the  chartered 
rights  of  cities  flowed  exclusively  from  the  crown 
under  circumstances  which  bear  no  imaginable  rela- 
tion to  crusading  incidents.  But,  throughout  the 
continent  north  of  the  Alps,  and  in  Germany  espe- 
cially, during  the  12th  and  loth  centuries,  there  ap- 
pears so  remarkable  an  advance  in  the  liberties  and 
consequent  prosperity  of  numerous  towns,  that  it  is 
natural  to  attribute  some  share  in  the  successful 
struggle  of  their  inhabitants  against  aristocratic  op- 
pression to  the  frequent  absence  of  the  most  active 
and  enterprising  of  their  feudal  seigneurs  and  neigh- 
bours in  the  holy  wars ;  and  still  more  to  the  com- 

*  "At  the  latter  end  of  the  13th  century,  there  were  almost  aa 
many  princes  in  the  north  of  Italy,  as  there  had  been  free  cities  in 
the  preceding  age."  Hallam,  Middle  Ages,  vol.  i.  p.  407. 

f  Heeren,  Sur  V Influence  des  Croisades,  p.  247,  248,  with  the 
authorities  there  quoted. 


462   CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  CRUSADES. 

mercial  impulse  which  was  excited  by  those  enter- 
prises. 

IV.  If  on  any  point,  indeed,  we  may  safely  dissent 
from  the  conclusions  of  those  historians  who  have 
Been  no  beneficial  results  in  the  Crusades,  it  will  be 
in  remarking  the  obvious  effect  of  the  Latin  expe- 
ditions to  the  East,  in  enlarging  the  commerce  of 
Europe. 

The  rapid  extension  of  the  trade  of  the  maritime 
Italian  republics  is  clearly  referable  to  their  share  in 
the  Crusades,  not  only  in  the  mere  transport  of 
warriors  and  pilgrims  for  hire,  but  in  the  warlike 
naval  co-operation  which  won  for  them  numerous 
lucrative  establishments  in  the  Levant.  Thence  they 
drew  and  poured  into  Europe  the  rich  products  of  the 
East,  and' accumulated  a  commerce  which,  though  not 
previously  altogether  unattempted,  had  acquired  little 
activity  until  the  commencement  of  the  Crusades. 
Nor  were  its  benefits  by  any  means  confined  to 
Italy,  or  even  to  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean; 
for,  by  inland  communication,  they  were  spread 
among  the  free  cities  of  Germany,  and,  through  the 
Straits  of  Gibraltar,  to  those  English  and  Flemish 
ports,  which  formed  the  only  entrepots  for  the  mer- 
chandise of  the  Italian  republics,  and  of  the  Hanse 
Towns  of  the  North.  It  is  not,  therefore,  too  strong 
an  assertion,  that  the  Crusades  were  more  instru- 
mental in  the  dissemination  of  commerce  throughout 
Europe,  than  any  other  circumstances,  until  the  dis- 


CONSEQUENCES    OF    THE    CRUSADES.       4C3 

covcry  of  the  New  World,  and  the  accomplishment  of 
a  maritime  passage  to  India. 

V.  But  no  kindred  influence  of  the  Crusades  can  be 
traced  in  the  diffusion  of  lettc-red  knowledge.  If,  in- 
deed, those  enterprises  had  enriched  the  Western 
World  with  the  precious  stores  of  the  ancient  Greek 
literature,  the  result  would  more  than  have  com- 
pensated for  the  political  injuries  which  the  crusaders 
inflicted  upon  the  worthless  and  tottering  edifice  of 
Byzantine  power.  But  the  spirit  of  the  ignorant 
Latins  was  still  too  barbarous  to  profit  by  a  collision 
with  the  more  cultivated,  though  perverted,  intellect 
of  the  Greeks;  the  mutual  hatred  and  contempt  of  the 
two  races  disdained  all  communion ;  and  so  far  were 
the  literary  treasures  of  Constantinople  from  awaken- 
ing the  curiosity  of  her  French  captors,  that  the  de- 
struction of  many  of  the  Greek  classics,  still  extant  in 
the  13th  century,  is  notoriously  ascribable  to  the  three 
calamitous  conflagrations  which  attended  the  Latin 
conquest  of  the  Eastern  capital.*  Nor,  even,  was  any 
knowledge  of  the  language  of  Greece  imported  into 
the  West  by  the  crusaders;  and  the  true  restorers  of 
Greek  learning  in  the  Latin  world  were  Petrarca  and 
Boccaccio,  whose  exertions,  in  the  next  century  after 
the  Crusades,  were  aided  by  circumstances  upon 
which  those  wars  could  have  left  no  control.  Nor 


*  See  the  authenticated  catalogue  of  these  losses  in  Heeren,  pp.  413, 
114. 


464        CONSEQUENCES    OF    THE    CRUSADES. 

can  any  part  of  the^  illumination  for  which  Europe 
was  indebted  in  the  Middle  Ages  to  the  letters  and 
science  of  the  Arabians,  be  more  correctly  ascribed  to 
the  occupation  of  Palestine  by  the  Franks.  For  the 
intellectual  splendour  of  the  eastern  khalifate  was 
extinct  before  the  First  Crusade;  the  rays  of  light 
diffused  from'  that  source  had  long  previously  pene- 
trated into  the  West  through  Spain  and  Italy;  many 
Latin  translations  of  the  Arabic  writers  had  been  pre- 
pared in  those  countries;  and  Toledo,  Salerno,  and 
Cassino  were  flourishing  schools  for  the  transmuted 
philosophy  and  learning  of  the  Mohammedans.* 
Lastly,  if  the  Crusades  had  exercised  any  decided 
influence  on  letters,  we  might  expect  to  find  its  traces 
in  the  native  and  romantic  poetry  of  the  West,  of 
which  the  darling  theme  was  most  congenial  to  the 
chivalric  spirit  of  such  enterprises.  Apart,  however, 
from  the  general  and  connecting  link  of  chivalry,  the 
subjects  even  of  Trouveur  and  Troubadour  contem- 
porary song  do  not  much  abound  with  references  to 
the  adventures  of  Paynim  war.  Some  oriental  colour- 
ing was,  no  doubt,  transfused  through  the  strains  of 
the  numerous  minstrels  who  followed  their  lords  to 
Palestine;  but  it  is  a  singular  fact,  that,  except  in 
two,  which  relate  the  deeds  of  Godfrey  of  Bouillon 
and  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion,  the  Crusades  do  not  form 
the  subject  of  the  romances  of  chivalry.^  It  has 

*  Mills,  Crusades,  vol.  ii.  pp.  360-364. 

•f  Idem,  vol.  ii.  p.  367,  and  Dunlop,  History  of  Fiction,  vol.  ii.  p  140 


CONSEQUENCES  OP  THE  CRUSADES.    465 

been  acutely  remarked,  that  those  expeditions  were, 
perhaps,  too  recent,  and  too  much  matters  of  real  lite, 
to  admit  the  decorations  of  fiction;*  but  neither  do 
they  appear  to  have  engrossed  more  attention,  as  sub- 
jects of  authentic  narrative,  than  the  other  political 
events  of  the  times;  nor  to  have  particularly  quick- 
ened that  fervour  of  historical  composition  which  is 
usually  awakened  by  great  events,  and  tends  by  its 
excitement  to  stimulate  the  intellect  of  an  age.  In 
this  respect,  notwithstanding  the  natural  interest  and 
richness  of  their  materials,  and  the  spirit-stirring  cha- 
racter of  their  details,  the  Crusades  did  not  elicit  any 
striking  improvement;  and  though  there  is  no  lack 
of  chroniclers  of  the  Holy  Wars,  they  are  scarcely 
more  numerous,  or  of  higher  merit,  than  the  contem- 
porary national  annalists  of  the  same  ages. 

VI.  That  the  new  blending  of  so  many  masses  of 
men  of  various  climes  and  manners  in  a  common 
cause — the  commingling,  as  it  were,  for  the  first  time, 
of  the  great  family  of  nations — and  the  general  habit 
of  foreign  and  distant  travel — must  altogether  have 
given  a  mighty  impulse  to  society,  and  dispelled  many 
clouds 'of  ignorance,  in  which  the  previous  stagnation 
of  intercourse  had  thickly  shrouded  the  countries  of 
the  West — can  hardly,  we  think,  be  doubted  by  any 
inquirer  whose  judgment  has  not  been  misled  to  the 
maintenance  of  some  preconceived  and  favourite 


*  Dunlop,  ubi  suprd. 
«0 


466    CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  CKUSADES. 

theory.  But,  it  has  been  triumphantly  asked,*  if 
some  benefits  were  thus  necessarily  communicated  to 
Europe,  what  were  they?  Specific  proof  may,  in  this 
epirit,  be  vainly  demanded  of  a  general  consequence, 
which,  from  its  very  nature,  admits  of  none.  Yet  no 
man  has  denied  the  striking  and  steady  progress  of 
civilization  after  the  llth  century;  and  our  historian 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  in  his  view  of  society,  has  even 
marked  the  close  of  that  century  which  is  identical 
with  the  commencement  of  the  Crusades,  as  the  point 
which  separates  the  extreme  darkness  of  barbarism  in 
Europe,  from  the  dawn  of  a  progressive  renovation.* 

If  the  Crusades,  by  the  stimulus  which  they  gave  to 
the  commercial  and  general  communion  of  nations, 
were  not  the  principal  causes  of  this  nascent  improve- 
ment during  the  12th  and  13th  centuries,  what  other 
attributes,  peculiar  to  the  times,  can  be  pointed  out, 
which  may  be  believed  to  have  exercised  so  strong 
and  universal  an  influence,  as  those  enterprises  with 
all  their  attendant  circumstances?  It  has  been  said 
that  the  Crusades  were  altogether  pernicious  to 
morality,  and  that  the  absurd  and  cruel  principles  of 
superstition  and  fanaticism  which  they  fostered  were 
equally  detrimental  to  religion.  But  here  again  is 
rodm  for  a  caution  against  the  confounding  of  proxi- 
mate and  ultimate  consequences.  As  the  dissolute, 
as  well  as  the  pious,  enlisted  under  the  banner  of  the 

*  Berington,  Literary  History  of  the  Middle  Ayes,  p.  2ti9. 
f  Hallain,  Mi'ldlt  Ayes;  vol.  iii.  372. 


CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  CRUSADES.   467 

Cross,  the  habits  of  the  worst  portions  of  society  were 
not  likely  to  be  improved  by  the  license  of  crusading 
camps;  but  the  myriads,  who  perished  amid  their  ex- 
cesses in  the  East,  at  least  relieved  their  native  lands 
of  the  burden  and  curse  of  their  presence.  The  stern 
(spirit  of  religious  persecution,  encouraged  by  an  ex- 
terminating warfare  against  infidels,  is  the  darkest 
feature  in  the  operation  of  the  Crusades  upon  the  feel- 
ings and  happiness  of  their  times.  The  justice  of  the 
principles  upon  which  those  enterprises  were  either 
originally  undertaken  or  subsequently  perverted,  is 
utterly  indefensible  upon  all  the  laws  of  God  and  man ; 
nor  were  there,  perhaps,  ever  any  human  contests,  in 
themselves  more  thoroughly  misguided  and  iniquitous 
than  those  holy  wars.  But  in  their  fruits  when  time 
had  purified  the  soil  in  which  the  wild  and  bitter 
stock  of  superstition  was  planted,  they  became  very 
salutary  to  mankind.  The  union  of  a  religious  with 
a  martial  spirit,  however  incongruous  in  its  origin,  has 
tended,  more  than  any  other  combination  of  senti- 
ment, to  humanize  not  only  warfare  itself,  but  the 
ordinary  relations  of  civilized  life ;  and,  as  the  insti- 
tutions of  chivalry  were  matured  and  perpetuated  by 
the  Crusades,  we  owe  to  those  enterprises  the  cultiva- 
tion of  all  the  moral  qualities,  of  personal  honour  and 
fidelity  to  obligations,  of  courtesy  to  the  one  sex  and 
respectful  tenderness  to  the  other,  which  have  de- 
scended upon  the  modern  gentleman,  and  survive  tc 
dignify  and  adorn  the  intercourse  of  polished  society. 


168    CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  CRUSADES. 

In  conclusion,  then,  we  may  venture  to  affirm,  of 
the  influence  and  consequences  of  the  Crusades,  thatv 
upon  the  state  of  religion,  they  were  at  first  per- 
nicious, but  ultimately  beneficial;  that,  upon  the  dis- 
tribution of  national  power  in  the  European  system, 
they  were,  altogether,  or  nearly,  immaterial;  that 
upon  the  internal  government  and  constitution  of  the 
feudal  kingdoms,  they  are  no  otherwise  discernible 
than  in  favouring  the  growth  of  municipal  freedom; 
that,  in  the  diffusion  of  commerce,  they  were  most 
important  and  valuable,  but  in  that  of  learning 
absolutely  null;  that,  in  the  commingling  of  nations, 
they  must  have  given  a  strong  and  general  impulse  to 
the  progress  of  civilization;  and,  finally,  that,  at  least 
by  the  promotion  of  chivalric  sentiment,  they  were  an 
obvious,  though  indirect  and  distant  means  of  amelio- 
rating  the  social  morals  and  manners  of  Europe. 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  THE  CRUSADES. 


THE  predisposing  causes  of  those  famous  enterprises  are  generally  attributed  to 
the  impulsive  influence  of  religion  upon  the  barbaric  mind,  the  institution  of  chi- 
valry, the  union  of  martial  and  superstitious  feelings,  and  the  influence  of  fanatical 
enthusiasm.  But  the  proximate  causes  are  seen  in  the  persecuting  frenzy  of  Hakem, 
the  third  Fatimite  khalif,  and  in  the  fanatical  cruelties  of  Seljukian  Turks.  The  re- 
ports of  returned  pilgrims  respecting  the  insulting  and  savage  cruelty  of  the  latter, 
as  well  as  the  destruction  of  the  Church  of  the  Resurrection  by  the  former,  excited 
general  indignation ;  but  it  was  not  till  the  return  of  Peter  Gautier,  an  officer  of 
Amiens,  who  had  renounced  his  profession  in  order  to  undertake  a  pilgrimage,  that 
any  proposal  was  made  for  attempting  the  expulsion  of  the  infidels  from  the  Holy 
Land.  Peter  (the  Hermit)  laid  before  Pope  Urban  II.  a  project  he  had  formed  for 
•xpelling  the  infidels  from  Palestine;  which,  being  backed  by  the  complaints  of  the 
Greek  emperor,  Alexis,  and  the  urgent  appeals  of  Peter,  the  pope  was  induced  to 
espouse  the  projected  enterprise;  accordingly  he  recommended  to  all  Chrisiian 
princes,  first  at  the  Council  of  Placentia,  and  afterward  at  that  of  Clermont,  the  duty 
of  zealously  engaging  in  this  holy  war.  At  the  latter  council  the  pope  obtained  from 
the  ambassadors  present  a  commission  for  Peter  Gautier  to  proceed  forthwith  in  the 
prosecution  of  his  chivalric  design.  The  ensuing  spring  (1096)  was  appointed  frr 
the  departure  of  the  first  army. 


The  Crusades — Abortive  Expeditions. 
1096  Peter  the  Hermit,  issues  from  the 
western  frontiers  of  France,  lead- 
ing an  immense  concourse  of  the 
lowest  orders. 

The  rabble  multitude  is  divided  : — 

The  first  division,  of  20,000,  is  led 
by  Walter,  the  Pennyless,  through 
Hungary. 

In  Bulgaria  they  are  all  destroyed, 
except  Walter  and  a  few  who 
escape  to  Constantinople. 

The  second  division,  of  40,000  un- 
der Peter  the  Hermit,  advance 
into  Hungary. 

They  destroy  Malleville  (Zemlin) 
and  slaughter  its  inhabitants. 

Carloman,  King  of  Hungary 
inarches  against  them. 

The  Bulgarians  cut  them  off  by 
thousand?. 

At  Nissa  they  are  routed  with 
great  slaughter;  their  camp  is 
despoiled  and  their  baggage  plun- 
dered, Ac. 

The  remnant  arrive  at  Constanti- 
nople in  great  distress ;  they  pass 
into  Asia  Minor. 


1096  They  are  nearly  all  cut  off  by  tho 
Turks  in  the  plain  of  Nice ;  only 
3000  escape. 

Fall  of  Walter,  the  Pennyless. 

Ihird  division,  of  15,000,  from 
Germany,  under  Gondenschal,  a 
German  monk. 

Their  atrocious  wickedness  in  Hun- 
gary ends  in  their  ruthless  mas- 
sacre at  Belgrade. 

Fourth  division,  of  200,000,  com- 
posed of  one  huge  mass  of  the  vile 
refuse  of  France,  Flanders,  the 
Rhenish  Provinces,  and  England. 

They  are  guided  by  two  "divinely 
inspired"  animals — a  goat  and  a 
goose. 

Massacre  of  Jews  at  Mayence  and 
Spires,  and  other  places  in  Ger- 
many. 

The  Crusaders  overthrown  in  Hun- 
gary. 

["  So  dreadful  the  carnage  that  the 
course  of  the  Danube  was 
choked  with  the  bodies,  and  its 
waters  dyed  with  the  blood  of 
the.  slain."  "  Before  twelve 
months  had  expired  since  th« 
4*59 


470 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  THE  CRUSADES. 


spirit  of  crusading  was  roused 
into  action  by  the  Council  ol 
Clermont,  and  before  a  single 
advantage  had  been  gained  over 
the  infidels,  the  fanatical  en- 
thusiasm of  Europe  had  already 
cost  the  lives,  at  the  lowest  com- 
putation, of  2oO,000  of  its  people. 
But  while  the  first  disasters  of 
the  Crusade  were  sweeping  this 
mass  of  corruption  from  the  sur- 
face of  society,  the  genuine  spi- 
rit of  religious  and  martial  en- 
thusiasm was  more  slowly  and 
powerfully  evolved.  With  ma- 
turer  preparation,  and  with  stea- 
dier resolve,  than  the  half-armed 
and  irregular  rabble,  the  mailed 
and  organized  chivalry  of  Europe 
was  arraying  itself  for  the  mighty 
contest;  and  a  far  different,  a 
splendid  and  interesting  spec- 
tacle opens  to  our  view." — Proc- 
tor.] 

THE    FIRST    CRUSADE. 

Though  not  undertaken  by  any  of 
the  crowned  heads  of  Europe, 
was  eagerly  embraced  by  the 
most  distinguished  feudal  princes 
of  the  second  order,  viz.  : — 

Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  with  his  two 
brothers,  Eustace  and  Baldwin, 
and  a  kinsman  also  named  Bald- 
win ;  Hugh,  Count  of  Verman- 
dois,  and  Robert  of  Normandy, 
brothers  of  the  French  and  Eng- 
lish Kings;  Robert  of  Flanders, 
Stephen  of  Chartres,  and  Ray- 
mond of  Thoulouse — the  first 
temporal  prince  who  assumed 
the  crown ;  Boemond,  son  of 
Robert  Guiscard,  Prince  of  Ta- 
ronto,  and  his  cousin  Tailored. 
Order  of  Departure. 

The  first  division,  under  Godfrey 
consisted  of  the  nobility  of  the 
Rhenish  provinces  and  the  North 
of  Germany. 

Godfrey  receives  assistance  from 
Carloman  of  Hungary  and  the 
Emperor  Alexius  :  he  peaceably 
arrives  with  his  army  on  the  fer- 
tile plains  of  Thrace. 

The  second  division,  under  the 
Counts  of  Vermandois  and  Char- 
tres, embraced  the  chivalry  of 
Central  and  Northern  France, 
the  British  Isles,  Normandy,  and 
Flanders. 

Their  passage  from  Italy  is  op- 
posi  d  by  the  Emperor  Alexius, 


and  Hugh  is  made  prisoner  at 
Durazzo. 

1096  Thrace  ravaged  by  the  Crusaders, 

under  Godfrey,  in  retaliation  fur 
the  opposition  offered  Hugh  of 
Vermandois,  by  the  Emperor 
Alexius. 

The  third  division,  under  Boemond 
and  Tancred,  composed  of  South- 
ern ItAlians — 10,000  horse,  and 
20,000  foot 

The  fourth  division,  under  the 
Count  of  Thoulouse,  includes  his 
own  vassals  and  native  confede- 
rates, comprehended  under  the 
general  appellation  of  Provencals. 

1097  Godfrey  at  open  war  with  Alexius: 

seizure  of  the  bridge  of  Blacher- 
na; ;  attack  upon  Constantinople. 

Hugh  of  Vermandois  mediates. 

Messages  from  Boemond  and  the 
Count  of  Thoulotise,  requesting 
Godfrey  to  defer  negotiations  till 
they  should  arrive. 

Godfrey  submits ;  hence  an 

Accommodation  between  the  wily 
Alexis  and  the  crusading  princes: 
the  latter  swears  fealty,  the  former 
delivers  his  son  as  hostage. 

Approach  of  the  third  division  to 
the  Byzantine  capital. 

Boemond  at  first  refuses  to  do  ho- 
mage to  Alexius,  but  afterward 
submits. 

The  fourth  division  next  ap- 
proaches— its  leader,  Raymond, 
sternly  refuses  homage  to  Alexius 
whom  he  menaces. 

Alexius  craftily  gains  the  ascen- 
dency over  the  mind  of  the  aged, 
though  stern,  Raymond. 

Muster  of  the  several  divisions 
in  the  plain  of  Asia  Minor; 
numbers  estimated — including 
100,000  mailed  cavalry,  and  a 
prodigious  number  of  priests, 
women,  and  children — at  about 
700,000. 

Siege  of  Nice,  June  20 ;  it  falls 
into  the  hands  of  the  Greeks  bj 
stratagem. 

Battle  of  Dorylaeum  in  July;  ulti- 
mate victory  of  the  Crusaders. 

Evacuation  of  Asia  Minor  by  the 
Sultan  of  Rouui. 

Triumphant  entry  of  the  crusading 
hosts  into  Syria. 

Battle  between  Taucred  and  Bald- 
win. 

Baldwin  separates  from  the  main 
body  and  proceeds  eastward, 
victoriously  overman  iE,g  th-> 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  THE  CRUSADES. 


whole  country  as  far  as  the  Eu- 
phrates. 
L097  The  Crusaders  lay  siege  to  Antioch. 

Famine  and  pestilence  in  the  Chris-' 
tian  camp ;  desertion  of  great 
numbers  to  Baldwin  in  Mesopo- 
tamia, Ac. ;  cowardice  of  the 
Duke  of  Normandy,  Count  of 
Chartres,  the  Viscount  of  Mcluu, 
and  Peter  the  Hermit. 
1098  The  Latin  principality  of  Edessa 
founded  by  Baldwin. 

fiiege  of  Antioch  renewed ;  the 
Turks  defeated,  through  the 
treachery  of  Phirouz ;  city  sur- 
prised and  captured;  the  Turk- 
ish garrison  escape  within  the 
citadel. 

The  Sultan  of  Persia  unites  the 
Turks  against  the  Christian  in- 
vaders :  twenty-eight  emirs  lead 
a  force  of  from  3000  to  4000  ca- 
valry to  relieve  the  garrison  in 
the  Citadel  of  Antioch. 

Blockade  of  the  Crusaders  in  the 
city. 

Second  famine ;  horrible  distress, 
attended  by  cannibalism,  and 
vice  of  every  kind. 

Alexius  abandons  their  relief. 

The  despairing  Crusaders  are  called 
into  action  by  superstition  and 
the  imposture  of  a  priest. 

Great  battle  of  Antioch  ;  the  Turks 
routed  with  terrible  slaughter. 

Foundation  of  the  Latin  princi- 
pality of  Antioch  ;  Boemond  its 
ruler. 

Disunion  among  the  crusading 
princes. 

Third  famine  and  pestilence  in 
Antioch,  which  sweep  off  100,000 
persons — cannibalism  again  re- 
sorted to. 

-099  The  Crusaders,  now  numbering 
only  1500  cavalry  and  20,000 
infantry,  and  an  equal  number 
of  unarmed  camp  followers,  <tc., 
proceeded  from  Antioch  to  Jaffa 
by  sea. 

Jerusalem  invested  by  the  Cru- 
saders, June. 

Sufferings  of  the  besieged  from 
thirst. 

Arrival  of  Genoese  galleys  in  Jaffa ; 
the  mariners  are  brought  to  the 
camp  to  construct  three  mova- 
ble towors. 

Jerusalem  taken  by  the  Crusaders, 
July  15;  frightful  massacre  of 
the  Mussulmans  and  Jews. 

Extirpation  of  (he  Mussulman  in- 


habitants;  the  law  of  conquest 
supplies  to  Jerusalem  a  new  and 
Christian  population. 
1099  Foundation  of  the  Latin  kingdom 
of  Jerusalem  ;  its  first  king  is 

Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  elected  by  th» 
army. 

He  modestly  declines  the  title  of 
king,  accepting  only  that  of 
"Defender  of  the  Tomb  of 
Christ." 

[Thus  the  great  design  of  the  firtt 
Crusade  had  been  accomplished, 
in  the  triumphant  recovery  of 
the  Holy  Sepulchre.] 

Foundation  of  the  Knights  of  St. 
John  of  Jerusalem — the  origin 
of  which  was  an  hospice  founded 
in  Jerusalem,  in  1048,  by  a  few 
merchants  of  Memphis,  for  the 
accommodation  of  pilgrims  from 
Europe.  An  hospital  for  the 
sick  was  afterward  added,  hence 
the  term — knights  hospitallers ; 
the  members  of  which  are  also 
known  as  the  Knights  of  Rhodes. 
When  the  Crusaders  entered  Je- 
rusalem, many  of  the  chevaliers 
determined  enjoining  the  order — 
Godfrey  granted  a  donation, 
which  example  was  followed  by 
other  princes.  To  the  usual  vows 
of  chastity,  poverty,  and  obedi- 
dience,  was  .added  a  vow  to  be 
always  ready  to  fight  against 
Mohammedans,  and  all  who  for- 
sook the  true  religion.  Thus 
was  the  chivalric  institution — 
the  offspring  of  feudalism — made 
subservient  to  the  interests  of  the 
church.  See  1118. 

Flourishing  period  of  chivalry. 

[On  the  continent,  the  lowest  te- 
nant, by  military  service,  was 
fully  included  in  the  pretensions 
and  privileges  of  nobility,  ex- 
cept in  the  case  of  imperial  feuds, 
which  were  not  accounted  noble 
beyond  the  third  degree  of  sub- 
inf'eudation.  Hence  the  land 
which  bristled  with  fortresses 
afforded  as  many  titles  of  no- 
bility; and  every  country  was 
filled  with  a  numerous  order  of 
minor  counts,  barons,  and  vavas- 
sors — the  vassals  of  the  greater 
feudatories,  and  themselves  each 
the  chieftain  of  a  train  of  knight- 
ly dependants.  The  least  of 
these  last,  who  was  bound  or  en- 
titled to  serve  his  lord  as  a  horse- 
man or  chevalier — from  uAeutt 


172    CHRONOLOGY  OF  THE  CRUSADES. 


are  derived  the  original  distinc- 
tion, and  the  very  name  of  CHI- 
VALKT — wag  a  member  of  the 
same  aristocracy  as  the  duke  or 
count,  the  privileges  of  which 
order,  according  to  feudal  cus- 
toms, formed  an  impassible  line 
between  it  and  the  commonalty. 
The  exact  epoch  at  which  Chi- 
valry acquired  a  religious  cha- 
racter, it  is  not  easy  to  determine. 
In  the  age  of  Charlemagne,  the 
form  of  knightly  investiture  was 
certainly  unattended  by  any  vows 
or  ecclesiastical  ceremonies;  but 
in  the  eleventh  century,  it  had 
become  common  to  invoke  the 
aid  of  religion  in  the  inaugura- 
tion of  the  knight.  There  is 
abundant  proof,  however,  of  the 
success  of  the  church,  before  the 
Crusades,  in  infusing  some  re- 
ligious principle  into  the  martial 
spirit  of  Chivalry.  The  original 
obligations  of  this  institution  in- 
cluded loyalty  and  honour,  cour- 
tesy and  benevolence,  generosity 
to  enemies,  protection  to  the 
feeble  and  the  oppressed,  and 
respectful  tenderness  to  wo- 
man.] 

1099  Approach  of  a  great  Fatimite  army, 

swelled  by  Turks  and  Saracens. 

Battle  of  Ascalon ;  the  Crusaders 
victorious;  they  acquire  much 
booty. 

The  princes  depart  for  Europe,  ex- 
cept Tancred,  who  remains  with 
Godfrey. 

Daimbert,  patriarch  of  Jerusalem. 

1100  Capture  of  Boemond,  prince  of  An- 

tioch,  by  an  Arminian  chieftain. 

Death  of  Godfrey,  aged  40,  five 
days  preceding  the  first  anniver- 
sary of  his  reign. 

Baldwin  I.  prince  of  Edessa,  elected 
king  of  Jerusalem  :  he  resigns  to 

Baldwin  du  Bourg,  the  brother  of 
Godfrey,  the  principality  of 
Edessa. 

1101  First'Crusade  by  land;  or 
Supplementary      Crusade      under 

Counts  Verrnandois  and  Char- 
tres. . 

1102  Vermandois  is  wounded  in  a  battle 

with  the  Mussulmans  of  CilicU; 
dies  at  Tarsus; 

Rash  assault  by  a  vanguard  upon 
the  Egyptian  invaders;  Chartrc* 
taken  and  murdered;  Baldwin 
respued  f-om  death  by  a  grateful 
emir. 


A.  D. 

1103 


1104 


1106 


1108 
1109 


1111 


1112 


1113 


1117 
1118 


Azotus  reduced  r.y  Baldwin;  tho 
siege  of  Acre  formed. 

Arrival  of  70  Genoese  ships  with 
Crusaders,  which  results  in  the 
Conquest  of  Acre  by  Baldwin  I. 

The  Count  of  Tholouse  is  joined  by 
several  French  princes,  who  had 
arrived  in  the  Supplemental  Cru- 
sade, (1101.) 

Tortosa  taken  by  Raymond. 

Bertrand,  son  of  Raymond,  effects 
the  conquest  of  Tripoli. 

Tripoli  and  its  vicinity  erected  into 
a  county,  by  Baldwin,  for  the 
house  of  Thoulouse.  Hence 
"  County  of  Tripoli." 

The  Crusaders  take  Berytus. 

Sidon  captured  by  the  Crusaders. 

[With  an  interval  of  four  years, 
two  fleets  of  Scandinavian  cruig- 
ers,  who  had  performed  the  long 
voyage  from  the  Baltic,  through 
the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  to  tiro 
Syrian  shores,  co-operated  with 
the  Christian  forces  of  Palestine, 
in  the  siege  of  Sidon.  Although 
the  first  attempt  was  repulsed, 
the  second  proved  successful.] 

Critical  position  of  the  State  of 
Edessa,  surrounded  by  Arme- 
nians and  Turks. 

Heroic  exploits  of  its  prince,  Bald- 
win du  Bourg,  and  his  relative, 
Joscelyn  de  Courtenay. 

Arrival  of  large  numbers  of  pil- 
grims and  Crusaders  from  Eu- 
rope. 

The  order  of  Knights  Hospitallers 
of  St.  John  confirmed  by  Papal 
Bull. 

The  Suljuk  Turks  of  Aleppo,  Da- 
mascus, and  Iconium,  aided  by 
Mohammedans  of  Arabia,  Egypt, 
and  Persia,  harass  and  often  de- 
feat the  Crusaders. 

Birth  of  Noureddin,  the  yonngt/4 
son  of  Zenghi,  second  of  the  At- 
tabek  princes. 

Expedition  against  Egypt  conduct- 
ed by  Baldwin. 

Death  of  Baldwin  I.  (in  March)  on 
his  march  toward  Egypt;  hi» 
cousin. 

BoUhoin  II.  (Prince  of  Edessa) 
King  of  Jerusalem. 

The  order  of  KniyJit*  ffogpi  fallen 
of  the  order  of  St.  John  (called 
also  Knights  of  Malta)  become* 
a  military  order.  Hence 

Kniijhts  Templars :  institution  of 
the  order  of  the  Temple  of  Solo 
uion. 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  THE  CRUSADES. 


473 


4.  D. 

[The  object  of  the  institution  of 
this  order  was  to  act  in  a  mili- 
tary capacity  to  protect  pilgrims. 
See  1099. 

[The  military  orders  were,  in  the 
first  instance,  subjected  to  the 
rule  of  St.  Augustin ;  modified, 
of  course,  in  some  degree,  by  the 
peculiar  object  of  their  institution. 
The  most  ancient  of  those  was 
the  order  of  the  Knights  Hospi- 
tallers of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem, 
established  in  the  first  instance 
(1048)  for  the  reception  and  care 
of  pilgrims  visiting  the  holy  city. 
This  order  became  monastic  in 
1092,  and  in  1118  added  the 
military  qualification.] 
1120  Zenghi,  governor  of  Mosul,  (1145, 

1146.) 

1124  Tyre  reduced  by  Baldwin  II.',  aided 
by  the  Doge  of  Venice,  who  ob- 
tains the  sovereignty  of  one-third 
of  the  city. 

[All  the  maritime  republics  of  Italy) 
with  their  characteristic  mercan- 
tile cupidity,  extorted  great  com- 
mercial advantages,  as  the  price 
of  their  services  to  the  Crusaders. 
And  throughout  the  Christian 
possessions  in  Palestine  and 
Syria  generally,  the  three  re- 
publics of  Genoa,  Pisa,  and  Ve- 
nice contended,  often  with  blood- 
shed, for  the  right  of  establishing 
places  of  exchange,  and  enjoying 
the  common  or  exclusive  privi- 
leges of  trade.] 

Archbishopric  of  Tyre  established. 

Extension  of  the  Latin  kingdom  of 
Jerusalem,  from  the  sea-coast  to 
the  deserts  of  Arabia,  and  from 
the  cityx  of  Beritus,  on  the  north, 
to  the  frontiers  of  Egypt,  on  the 
south,  forming  a  territory  about 
60  leagues  in  length,  and  30  in 
breadth ;  and  exclusive  of  the 
county  of  Tripoli,  which  stretched 
northward  from  Beritus  to  the 
borders  of  the  Antiochian  .princi- 
pality. 

1331  Abdication  of  Baldwin,  with  the 
consent  of  his  nobles  and  prelates, 
in  favour  of  his  son-in-law. 

Fotilifiiea  (of  Anjou)  King  of  Jeru- 
salem. 

Baldwin  retires  to  a  convent. 
1144  Baldwin  III.,  King  of  Jerusalem, 
(13   years   old,)   in    conjunction 
with  his  mother,  Melesinda. 

[Soon  after  the  martial  sceptre  of 
tho  house  of  Bouillon  had  de- 


volved upon  a  woman  and  a 
minor,  the  Christian  power  i& 
the  East  began  to  decline.] 

1145  Fall  of  Edessa;  Zenghi,  the  Turk- 

ish  emir  of  Aleppo,  takes  it  bj 
storm. 

Indignation  excited  in  Europe  by 
the  event. 

St.  Bernard  preaches  a  Second  Cru- 
sade, which  is  promoted  by  Louis 
of  France. 

[At  the  soul-stirring  exhortations 
of  St.  Bernard,  the  great  feuda- 
tory princes  of  Bavaria,  Bohe- 
mia, Carinthia,  Piedmont,  and 
Styria,  with  a  crowd  of  inferior 
chieftains,  assumed  the  cross; 
and  the  conversion  of  the  empe- 
ror Conrad  III.,  after  some  strug- 
gle between  tho  sense  of  political 
interest  and  religious  duty,  com- 
pleted the  triumph  of  the  pious 
orator.] 

Decline  of  the  power  of  the  Cru- 
saders. 

1146  Zenghi  murdered  by  his  own  troops 

at  the  siege  of  Jabbar;  his  son, 
Noureddin,  the  third  of  the 
dynasty  of  the  Attabeks  of  Syria, 
becomes  King  of  Aleppo  and 
Damascus. 

lie  maintains  war  against  the  Cru- 
saders. 

1147  The  Second  Crusade;  led  by  the 

Emperor  Conrad  III.,  and  by 
Louis  VII.,  King  of  France. 

[The  number  of  the  Crusaders  has 
been  estimated  as  approaching 
near  to  a  million  ;  of  which  70,000 
were  mailed  cavalry,  and  250,000 
were  trained  infantry,  the  rest 
were  clergy,  pilgrims,  women, 
and  camp  followers.] 

Treacherous  policy  of  Comnenus, 
the  Greek  emperor;  he  harasses 
the  crusaders  in  their  march 
through  Bulgaria. 

Conrad,  on  arriving  at  Constanti- 
nople, indignantly  refuses  to 
have  an  interview  with  Comne- 
nus. 

Louis  arrives  at  Constantinople 
after  the  departure  of  Conrad ;  ha 
accepts  the  apologies,  and  is  in- 
duced to  delay  his  march,  by  the 
treacherous  emperor. 

Almost  total  destruction  of  the  im- 
perial army  in  the  passes  of  Ly- 
caonia  by  the  Sultan  of  Iconium. 

Louis  encamps  at  Nice ;  here  he  is 
joined  by  Conrad  and  tho  rem- 
nant of  the  imperial  army. 


474 


CHRONOLOGY    OF    THE    CRUSADES. 


A.  D. 

1147 


1148 


•.149 


t!50 


1151 


1153 

1162 


The  united  forces  come  to  Ephe- 
sus;  here  they  separate — the 
Germnns  proceed  by  sea  to  Pa- 
lestine ;  the  French  by  land. 

Sanguinary  defeat  of  the  Turks  by 
Louis,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Meander. 

Surprise  and  defeat  of  Louis  in  the 
mountains  between  Pisidia  and 
Phrygia;  narrow  escape  of  the 
king. 

Retreat  upon  the  port  of  Attalia. 

Louis  transports  his  nobles  and 
knights  by  sea  to  Palestine. 

The  infantry  and  pilgrims  left  be- 
hind perish,  either  by  the  cime- 
tars  of  the  Turks,  or  the  unnatu- 
ral cruelty  of  the  Greeks. 

The  sovereigns  of  Jerusalem,  Ger- 
many, and  France,  resolve  on  re- 
ducing Damascus. 

Great  victory  of  Saladin  over  the 
Christian*  at  Antioch ;  Ray- 
mond is  killed,  Joscelyn  de 
Courtenay  made  prisoner. 

Unsuccessful  siege  of  Damascus. 

Return  of  Louis ;  he  lands  at  St 
Gilles  on  the  Rhone,  in  October. 

[Louis  left  Metz  in  1147,  at  the 
head  of  70,000  knights,  mounted 
and  armed,  and  a  band  of  in- 
fantry and  camp  followers, 
amounting  to  about  200,000. 
He  returned  a  fugitive,  with 
about  300  followers,  in  barks 
furnished  by  Sicily.] 

Return  of  Conrad  with  the  misera- 
ble remnant  of  his  army. 

[Thus  ended  abortively  the  second 
Crusade,  leaving  the  Christian 
cause  in  Palestine  again  desert- 
ed, save  by  the  scanty  bands, 
but  enduring  courage  of  its  ha- 
bitual defenders.] 

Increasing  danger  of  the  Latin 
kingdom  of  Palestine  from  the 
arms  of  Noureddin,  the  Attabek 
of  Aleppo. 

Victory  of  Baldwin  III.  over  the 
Turks  at  Jericho. 

Ascaloii  falls  by  the  chivalry  of 
Baldwin. 

Death  of  Baldwin  III. ;  his  brother 

Almeric,  succeeds  as  King  of  Je- 
rusalem. 

[Though  Baldwin  was  destitute  of 
any  high  degree  of  ability,  his 
character  was  graced  by  many 
noble  and  chivalric  qualities. 
As  he  left  no  children,  he  was 
succeeded  by  his  brother  Alrae- 
ric,  whose  equal  mediocrity  of 


talent  was  unrelieved  by  the  sama 
virtues.] 

1162  Almeric  neglects  immediate   dan- 

gers, and  wastes  his  energies  in 

projects     for    the    conquest    ol 

Egypt; 
Victory    of    Almeric     over   Shira 

couch. 
Pelusium  besieged  and  taken. 

1163  Surprise  and  sanguinary  defeat *of 

Almeric,  near  Artesia,  by  Nou- 
reddin. 

1167  Second  signal  defeat  of  Shiracouch 

on  the  Egyptian  frontiers;  the 
Turks  capitulate  and  engage  to 
evacuate  Egypt. 

1168  Project  of  Almeric  for  the  perma- 

nent subjugation  of  Egypt. 
Pelusium  taken,  and  cruelly  sacked 

by  Almeric. 
He   advances   before   the  wall  of 

Cairo. 
Death  of  Nonreddin. 

1169  Failure  of  the  project  of  Almeric, 

owing  to  the  faithlessness  of  th^ 
Greek  Emperor  and  tho  craft  of 
the  vizier  Shaweer. 

Retreat  of  Almoric  into  Palestine. 

Rise  of  Sallah-u-deen,  or  Saladin^ 
the  scourge  of  the  Christian 
fortunes  in  Palestine. 
1171  Saladin  deposes  the  sons  of  Nou- 
reddin, and  unites  under  his  sway 
all  the  Mussulman  states  from 
the  Nile  to  the  Tigris. 

Dissensions   and  weakness   of  the 

Latin  kingdom  of  Palestine. 
1173  Death  of  Almeric  ;  his  son 

Baldwin  IV.  (a  leper)  King  of  Je- 
rusalem. 

Regency  of  the  king's  sister,  Sy- 
1  billa,  and  .her  husband,  Guy  de 
Lusignan. 

Disaffection  of  the  barons  of  Pales- 
tine. 

1176  Siege  of  Alexandria. 

1177  Defeat  of  Saladin  before  Jerusalem. 
1183  Abdication    of  Baldwin    IV.;   his 

nephew 

Baldwin  V.  (an  infant)  under  tho 
protection  of  Joscelyn  de  Courte- 
nay. 

Raymond,  regent  of  the  kingdom. 

Subjugation  of  Aleppo  by  Saladin. 

Death  of  the  ex-king,  Baldwin  IV. 

Suspicious  death  of  Baldwin  V. 
1186   Guy   de  Lusignan,   King   of  Jem 
Siilein. 

Civil    war;    Raymond   of    Tripoli 
allies      himself     with     Saladin 
against  Lusignan. 
11S7  SalaJin    demands  redress  for  *• 


CHRONOLOGY    OF    THE    CRUSADES'. 


475 


A.  D. 

outrage  perpetrated  by  Reginald 
de  Chatillon. 

Lusignan  refuses  justice,  where- 
upon 

Saladin  invades  Palestine  with  an 
ar*ny  of  80,000  horse  and  foot. 

Battle  of  Tiberias ;  sanguinary  de- 
feat of  the  Crusaders ;  Guy  de 
Lusignan  made  prisoner;  Cha- 
tillon decapitated  by  Saladin 
himself,  and  230  of  the  Knights 
of  St.  John  taken  prisoners  and 
inhumanly  murdered  by  his 
orders. 

[The  Christians  were  betrayed  by 
the  Count  of  Tripoli.  See  1086.] 

Fall  of  Caesarea,  Acre,  Jaffa,  and 
Beritus. 

Tyre  besieged;  Saladin  abandons 
the  siege  and  marches  against 
Jerusalem. 

Saladin  takes  Jerusalem,  October  2. 

[Thus  after  a  possession,  by  the 
Christians,  of  88  years,  Jeru- 
salem was  again  denied  by  the 
religion  and  empire  of  the  vota- 
ries of  Mohammed.] 

Fall  of  Bethlehem,  Nazareth,  As- 
calon,  and  Sidon. 

Tyre,  defended  by  Conrad  of  Mont- 
ferrat,  holds  out  against  Saladin. 

[The  news  of  the  fall  of  Jerusalem, 
Ac.,  filled  all  Western  Christen- 
dom with  horror  and  grief.] 

A  "  Saladine"  tithe  is  exacted  in 
Europe  for  fitting  out  armaments 
for  Palestine. 

1188  Popular  expeditions  preceding 

THE    THIRD    CRUSADE — by  SCa. 

["All  the  principal  sovereigns  of 
Europe,  except  those  of  Spain, 
vowed  to  lead  their  national 
forces  to  the  recovery  of  Jeru- 
salem ;  but  even  their  earnest 
preparations  wera  too  tardy  for 
popular  impatience."] 

Myriads  arrive  in  Palestine  from 
the  ports  of  Italy,  the  Baltic,  the 
North  Sea,  England,  and  the 
Mediterranean,  at  their  own  ex- 
pense. 

1189  Siege  of  Acre  commenced;  100.000 

Crusaders,  led  by  many  noble- 
men and  prelates  under  Lusig- 
nan appear  before  the  city. 
["  On  both  sides  the  frightful  con- 
sumption of  human  life  was  fed 
by  new  arrivals ;  and  during 
nearly  two  years  the  strength  of 
Christendom  and  Islam  was  con- 
centrated and  exhausted  in  an 


indecisive  conflict  before  the 
single  city  of  Acre."] 

1189  Departure  of  King  Richard  from 

England,  Dec.  11. 

1190  Richard  I.  of  England,  and  Philip 

Auguste  of  France,  assemble 
their  forces  (amounting  t< 
100,000  men)  on  the  plain  of 
Vezelay,  July  1. 

Louis  departs  from  Genoa  for 
Sicily. 

Richard's  army  sails  from  Mar 
seilles. 

Violent  proceedings  of  King  Ri- 
chard toward  Tancred;  Ac.,  in 
Sicily. 

Dissensions  between  Louis  and 
Richard. 

Frederic  (Barbarossa)  defeats  the 
Sultan  of  Iconium,  who  sues  for 
peace. 

Death  of  Frederic — drowned  while 
attempting  to  swim  across  the 
river  Calycadnus  in  Cilieia, 
June  10. 

The  Duke  of  Suabia  takes  the  com- 
mand. 

Antioch  taken  by  the  imperial 
army. 

Fearful  destruction  of  life  in  th« 
army  of  the  German  Crusaders. 

Institution  of  Teutonic  Order  of 
knights. 

[About  60  years  before  this  time, 
a  German  crusader  and  his  lady 
founded  hospitals  in  Jerusalem 
for  poor  pilgrims,  of  both  sexes, 
of  their  nation;  and  when  sub- 
sequent endowments  had  en- 
riched these  houses,  the  male 
brethren  devoted  themselves  to 
military,  as  well  as  charitable 
services.  But  their  efforts  had 
obtained  little  distinction ;  and 
their  fraternity  was  dissolved  by 
the  expulsion  of  the  Christians 
from  Jerusalem.  Its  purposes 
were  now  recalled  to  the  na- 
tional attention  by  the  private 

•  charity  of  some  individuals 
among  the  German  army,  who 
opened  their  tents  for  the  recep- 
tion of  their  sick  and  wounded 
countrymen.  A  number  of 
knights  having  joined  this  be- 
nevolent association,  the  Duke 
of  Suabia  seized  the  occasion  to 
incorporate  them  into  a  regular 
order  of  religious  chivalry.  Note 
to  1099. 

Arrival  of  Philip  of  Frai"*  befor* 
Acre  from  Sicily. 


476 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  THE  CRUSADES. 


Conquest  of  Cyprus  by  King 
Richard. 

Richard's    fleet    dispersed     by    a 

storm. 

U91  A  Mussulman  troop-ship,  manned 
by  1,500  bands,  destroyed  by 
Richard. 

Arrival  of  the  English  before  Acre, 
June  10. 

King  Richard  insults  Leopold  of 
Austria  before  Acre. 

Acre  capitulates,  July  12 ;  5,000 
hostages  left  by  Saladin,  till  the 
ransom  money  of  200,000  pieces 
of  gold  should  be  paid. 

[The  conquest  was  dearly  acquired 
by  the  loss  of  100,000  Chris- 
tians.] 

Cold-blooded  massacre  of  the  Mus- 
sulman hostages;  followed  by 
the  retaliating  slaughter  of  the 
captive  Christians  by  Saladin. 

Open  rupture  belween  Richard 
and  Philip. 

Philip  of  France  retires  from  the 
crusade,  leaving  10,000  of  his 
troops  under  the  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy. 

Conrad,  Prince  of  Tyre,  King  of 
Jerusalem. 

Assassination  of  Conrad;  followed 
by 

Marriage  of  Henry,  Count  of  Cham- 
pagne, with  Conrad's  widow; 
hence 

Henry,  of  Champagne,  King  of  Je- 
rusalem. 

The  kingdom  of  Cyprus  found. 

King  Richard  departs  from  Acre 
at  the  head  of  the  combined 
army.  30.000  strong. 

The  Crusaders  winter  on  the  coast. 
1192  Arrival  of  the  Christian- host  in  the 
valley  of  Hebron  ;  terror  of  the 
infidels. 

The  Austrian?  desert  the  Crusade  ; 
also  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  and 
the  French. 

Unexpected  retreat  of  the  Crusaders 
from  before  Jerusalem. 

Jaffa  seized  by  Saladin. 

Gallant  exploits  of  Richard  at 
Askelonr  Ac. 

Battle  of  Askelon,  (called  by  some 
battle  of  Asbdod  or  Azotus;)  de- 
feat of  Saladin;  20  emirs  and 
40,000  Turks  and  Saracens  (in- 
cluding 7000  cavalry)  killed, 
September  7. 

Ascalun,  Jaffa,  Caesarea,  and  other 
places,  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
Crusaders. 


A.  D. 
1192 


1193 


1194 
1195 


1196 
1197 


1193 


1200 


Truce  for  three  years  between  Sal*' 
din  and  Richard  j  the  latter  dis- 
mantles Ascalon,  and  the  former 
engages  not  to  molest  Tyre, 
Acre,  Jaffa,  Antioch,  and  Tripoli, 
and  to  grant  free  access  to  all 
Christians  visiting  Jerusalem. 

Departure  of  Richard's  fleet,  hav- 
ing on  board  his  queen,  sister, 
and  the  daughter  of  the  captire 
king  of  Cyprus. 

Richard  sails  from  Acre,  October,  9. 

End  of  the  third  Crusade. 

Richard  lands  at  Corfu  in  Novem- 
ber, and  leaves  it  about  the 
middle  of  the  same  month. 

Death  of  Saladin,  March  4. 

[He  is  perhaps,  the  brightest  ex- 
emplar in  history  of  an  Asiatic 
hero  ;  and  his  virtues,  like  the 
dark  traits  which  obscured  them, 
exhibit  the  genuine  lineaments 
of  his  clime  and  race.] 

Division  of  Saladin's  empire;  hit 
brother.  * 

Saphadin  reigns  in  Syria,  whilo 
his  three  sons  erect  distinct 
thrones  at  Cairo,  Damascus,  and 
Aleppo. 

A  new  Crusade  preached  in  Ger- 
many. 

Crusade  of  German  chivalry;  three 
great  armaments  under  the  guid 
ance  of  nobles  and  prelates  sue 
sessively  arrive  at  Acre. 

Union  of  the  Mussulman  powers  of 
Egypt  and  Syria  against  the 
Crusaders. 

Indecisive  results  of  this  campaign. 

Jerusalem  still  in  the  hands  of  the 
infidels. 

Death  of  Henry,  nominal  king  of 
Jerusalem. 

Almei-ic  of  Lusignam  tnarrtes  the 
widow  of  Henry,  and  is  recog- 
nised King  of  Jerusalem  and 
Cyprus,  (1191.) 

A  fourth  Crusade  promoted  by  In- 
nocent III. 

Folques  of  Neuilly  atones  for  a  life 
of  sin  by  preaching  a  new  Cru 
sade. 

["Without  the  rude  originality  of 
Puter  the  Hermit,  or  the  learning 
of  St.  Bernard,  he,  nevertheless, 
kindled  the  flume  of  religious 
enthusiasm  throughout  Flanders 
and  France."] 

Many  French  barons,  <fee.  take 
the  Cross;  the  chief  promoter  ia 
Thibaud,  Count  of  Champagne. 

The    barons    of    France    implore, 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  THE  CRUSADES. 


477 


upon  their  knees,  the  maritime 
aid  of  Venice. 

1200  The  Venetians  agree  to  convey  the 

armaments  to  Palestine  for 
85,000  silver  marks. 

1201  The  Crusade  delayed — 1st,  by  the 

death  of  Thibaud  ;  2d,  by  dis- 
sensions among  the  leaders ;  3d, 
by  the  deficiency  of  30,000  marks 
to  pay  for  transhipment.  - 

THE    FOURTH    CHUSADE. 

1202  Departure  of  the  Crusaders,  under 

the  Marquis  of  Montserrat; 
Zara  captured ;  denunciations  of 
the  pope;  return  of  De  Mount- 
fort;  new  destination  of  the  ar- 
mament, owing  to  the  successful 
negotiations  of  the  friends  of 
«-  young  Alexius  with  the  Latin 
barons,  Ac.,  to  replace  his  father 
on  the  throne  of  the  East,  which 
his  uncle  had  usurped. 

1203  The  Crusaders  sail  for  Constanti- 

nople. 

Negotiations  with  Alexius ;  siege. 

Flight  of  Alexius ;  Isaac  restored. 

Disunion  between  the  Latins  and 
Greeks. 

Young  Alexius  induces  the  Cru- 
saders to  defer  their  expedition 
till  the  next  year. 

Third  part  of  Constantinople  burned 
in  a  feud. 

The  Crusaders  demand  the  fulfil- 
ment of  Alexius's  pecuniary  agree- 
ment; they  defy  the  two  empe- 
rors, which  leads  to 

Open  hostilities ;  the  Crusaders  and 

the  Greeks  at  war. 

(204  Revolution  in  Constantinople  ;  the 
two  emperors  deposed  by  Mour- 
zoufle  ;  Alexius  is  murdered. 

Death  of  Isaac  in  prison. 

Second  siege  of  Constantinople. 

Treaty  of  partition  by  the  Cru- 
saders. 

Capture  of  Constantinople,  April  12. 

A  second  conflagration;  destruc- 
tion of  the  remains  of  ancient 
letters  and  art,  Ac. 

Pillage;  public  distribution  of  the 
spoils.  • 

Baldwin,  of  Flanders,  the  first 
Latin  Emperor  of  the  East. 

The  Eastern   kingdom  divided  be- 
y      tween  the  Latin  barons  and  the 
Venetians. 

Capture  of  Mourzoufle;  he  is 
thrown  from  the  summit  of  the 
Theodosian  pillar. 

Theodora  Lascaris  devotes  himself 


to  the  rescue  of  his  country  from 
the  Latin  domination.    . 

1204  End  <>f  the  Fourth  Crusade. 

[In  the  division  and  enjoyment  of 
a  conquered  empire,  the  confede 
rated  barons  seemed  to  have  for- 
gotten the  original  object  of  their 
expedition ;  and  the  vain  trophies 
of  a  victory,  not  over  Paynim, 
but  Christian  enemies — the  gatei 
and  chain  of  the  harbour  of  Con- 
stantinople— sent  by  the  new 
Emperor  of  the  East  to  Palestine, 
were  the  only  fruits  of  the  fourth 
Crusade,  which  ever  reached  the 
Syrian  shores.] 

1204  Truce  with  Saphidin  for  six  years. 
["  The  cupidity  of  the  leaders  of 
the  fourth  Crusade  occasioned 
the  loss  of  the  fairest  opportunity 
of  re-establishing  the  Christian 
fortunes  in  Palestine.  The  dis- 
sensions of  the  Mussulman 
princes,  and  the  ravages  of  • 
dreadful  famine,  and  consequent 
pestilence  in  Egypt,  would  have 
effectually  paralyzed  all  oppo- 
sition from  that  dangerous  quar- 
ter to  the  success  of  the  crusad 
ing  arms.  But  the  hopes  ex- 
cited for  the  Christian  cause 
were  completely  lost  in  the  di- 
version of  the  fourth  Crusade 
against  the  Eastern  Empire. 

1210  John  de  Drienne,  King  of   Jeru- 

salem. 

Saphidin  applies  for  a  prolongation 
of  the  truce,  which  the  Latins 
refuse. 

1211  The  Mussulman  arms  are  success- 

ful against  the  Latins,  who  ara 
in  great  straits. 

1213  Appeal  of  John  De  Brienne  to  tho 

pope  for  succour  against  the  in- 
fidels. 

1214  The  pope  decrees  another  Crusade. 

1215  The  4th  Lateran  council  zealously 

adopt 

THE    FIFTH    CRUSADE — by  Sea. 

1217  First  expedition,  the  Hungarian 
Crusaders  under  their  King  An- 
drew. 

Second  expedition;  Germans,  Ita- 
lians, French,  English,  under 
Duke  of  Austria. 

1217  Abortive  campaign  of  King  Andrew. 
The  Turks  expel  the  Saracens  front 

Jerusalem. 
1218.  Return  of  Andrew  of  Hungary. 

Numerous  accessions  from  Ger- 
many. 


478 


CHRONOLOGY    OF    THE    CRUSADES. 


A.  D. 

1218 


1219 


1220 


1221 
1224 


1125 


1228 


1229 


1230 


The  Crusaders  invade  Egypt 

Siege  and  capture  of  Daniietta. 

Two  of  the  sons  of  Saphidin,  Cora- 
dinug,  and  Camel,  offer  the  ces- 
sion of  Jerusalem,  on  condition 
that  the  Crusaders  evacuate 
Egypt 

This  most  acceptable  offer  rejected, 
through  the  cupidity  of  the  papal 
legate. 

Disastrous  condition  of  the  Crusa- 
ders near  Cairo;  the  legate  sues 
for  peace. 

Peace  purchased  by  the  surrender 
of  Damietta  to  the  Sultan  of 
Cairo. 

Disgraceful  return  of  the  Crusaders 
from  Egypt  to  Acre. 

Embassy  of  Herman  de  Saltza, 
Grand-Master  of  the  Teutonic 
knight?,  to  the  Emperor  Frede- 
ric, offering  him  the  hand  of 
lolanta,  daughter  and  heiress  of 
John  de  Brienne,  King  of  Jeru- 
salem. 

Marriage  of  the  Emperor  Frederic 
and  lolanta ;  her  doweY  consist- 
ing of  the  transfer  of  the  sove- 
reign rights  of  her  father  to 
Frederic. 

Frederic  promises  to  lead  an  army 
into  Palestine,  for  its  reconquest, 
within  two  years. 

Frederic  (emperor)  arrives  in  Pa- 
lestine with  a  reinforcement  in 
28  galleys. 

Difficulties  oft  Frederic,  arising 
from  the  iniquitous  persecution 
of  the  pope. 

Negotiations  with  the  Sultan  Cora- 
dinus ;  peace  concluded  for  ten 
years :  free  access  to  Jerusalem 
granted  to  the  Christians;  with 
possession  of  Bethlehem,  Naza- 
reth, Ac. 

Frederic  crowns  himself  in  Jeru- 
salem ;  the  patriarch  having  re- 
fused to  perform  the  ceremony. 

Return  of  Frederic  to  Germany;  and 

End  of  the  F!fih  Crutaile. 

Death  of  the  Empress  lolanta  in 
giving  birth  to  a  son. 

Civil  war ;  struggle  for  the  crown 
between  the  partisans  of  Frederic, 
and  those  of  Alice,  widow  of 
Hugh  de  Lusignan. 

Reconciliation  effected  by  the  me- 
diation of  Pope  Gregory  IX. 

Renewal  of  hostilities  between  the 
Emirs  of  Syria  and  the  Latins. 

Several  thousand  pilgrims  slaugh- 
tered. 


1230  Sanguinary  defeat  of  the  Knights 
Templars,  by  the  Emir  of  Aleppo. 

12.32  Another  Crusade  projected  by  the 
Council  of  Spoletto  :  the  Domi- 
nicans and  Franciscans  are  au- 
thorized to  preach  it 
Appropriation  of  the  moneys  col- 
lected for  the  Crusade,  by  the 
pope  and  his  agonts. 

1235  Armenia  seized  by  the  Mogols. 

1236  The  Christians  expelled  from  Je- 

rusalem by  the  Sultan  of  Egypt. 

1237  Martial  and   religious   enthusiasm 

excited  throughout  Europe. 
The  nobles  of  France  and  England 
take  the  Cross. 

THE  SIXTH  CRVSADE — two  expeditions. 

1238  I.  Expedition  of  the   French  Cru- 

saders under  Thibaud,  Count  of 
Champagne,  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
Ac. 

Defeat  of  the  Crusaders  at  Gaza; 
Count  de  Bar  slain,  Armory  de 
Montfort,  and  many  nobles  an(? 
knights  taken  captive. 

Retreat  of  the  King  of  Navarre 
upon  Acre. 

The  French  leaders,  Ac.  return 
home. 

II.  Expedition  of  Richard.  Earl  of 
Cornwall,  who  lands  at  Acre,  ac- 
companied by  the  flower  of  the 
English  chivalry. 

His  arrival  strikes  the  Mussulmans 
with  terror,  and  inspires  the 
Christians  with  confidence. 

Richard  demands  the  restoration 
of  the  prisoners  taken  at  the 
battle  of  Gaza. 

He  marches  upon  Jaffa ;  but 

The  Sultans  of  Egypt  and  Damas- 
cus hasten  to  negotiate  for  peace. 

1240  Jerusalem   restored   to   the  Chris- 

tians. 

Restoration  of  600  Christian  prison- 
ers. 

Return  of  Richard.  Earl  of  Corn- 
wall. 

End  of  the  Sirth  Crimade. 

1241  The  fortifications  of  Jerusalem  re- 

built by  the  Knights  Templars. 
The  ravages  of  the  Moguls  in  Asia 

Minor  drive  several   tribes  into 

Syria   for   settlements.     One  of 

these  tribes — 
The    Kharizuiian    horde,    (20,000 

cavalry,)  under   Barbacan,  enter 

Palestine,   being  guided   by   an 

Egyptian  emir. 

1242  Jerusalem  captured   by  Barbacan, 

$nd  finally  lost  to  the  Christian*. 


CHRONOLOGY     OF     THE     CK17SADES. 


479 


A.  D. 
1242 


1243 


124) 


1245 

1247 
1248 


1249 


Indiscriminate  massacre  of  the  in- 
habitants; pillage  of  the  city; 
general  ruin. 

The  Knights  Templars  unite  with 
the  Moslems  of  Damascus,  Alep- 
po, 'Ems,  against  the  Egyptians 
and  Khammians. 

Terrible  defeat  of  the  Christian 
chivalry  and  their  Moslem  allies. 

Fall  of  Tiberias,  Ascalon,  Ac. 

Palestine  overrun  by  the  Khariz- 
ruians. 

The  Christian  chivalry  confined  to 
Acre. 

Disunion  between  the  Kharismians 
and  Egyptians  ;  the  former  ex- 
pelled from  Palestine. 

Holy  Sepulchre  in    the    hands  of 
infidels. 
THE  SEVENTH  CUIISADE. 

The  now  Crusade  was  resolved 
upon  at  the  Council  of  Lyons; 
temporal  wars  to  be  suspended 
for  four  years. 

Crusade  embraced  in  England  and 
France. 

Cyprus  the  rendezvous  of  the 
French  Crusaders ;  here  they 
spend  8  months. 

Louis  sails  for  Egypt  with  1800 
vessels,  and  50,000  men. 

[In  imitation  of  the  plan  of  the 
fifth  Crusade,  Egypt,  as  the 
principal  seat  of  the  Moslem 
power,  was  again  selected  for 
the  theatre  of  operations.] 

A  storm  disperses  the  fleet ;  only 
700  knights,  under  the  king, 
make  the  port. 

Panic  of  the  Mussulmans;  they 
evacuate  Damietta'  to  the 
French. 

Arrival  of  those  dispersed  by  the 
storm,  with  a  body  of  English 
nobles  under  William  Long- 
sword. 

March  of  the  French  toward  Cairo. 

Rnshness  of  the  Count  d'Artois  at 
Mansora ;  himself,  William 
Longsword,  and  a  host  ,' 
knights  slain. 

Death  of  Nedjmeddin,  Sultan  of 
Egypt. 

Louis  defeats  the  Moslems  at  Man- 


sora. 

Crusaders  in  distress  ;  famine  and 
pestilence  make  frightful  ravages 
among  them. 

1250  Total  rout  of  the  Crusivders  at  Man- 
•sora^and  capture  of  Louis;  de- 
struction of  at  least  30,000  Chris-  '  1269 
liana. 


A.  D. 

1250 


1253 


1254 


1255 
1257 

1260 
1263 

1265 
1266 

12(57 
1268 


Revolution  in  Egypt;  Louis  in 
danger. 

Surrender  of  Damietta  to  the 
Turks,  April  5,  in  exchange  foi 
the  king  and  nobles. 

The  king  proceeds  to  Acre ;  but 
most  of  his  nobles  return  home. 

[During  four  years,  the  treasures 
which  Louis  was  enabled  to 
raise  were  lavishly  expended  ia 
refortifying  Jaffa,  Caesnrea,  Si- 
don,  and  Acre.] 

Dissensions  among  the  Moslem 
emirs  of  Syria  and  Egypt;  hence 
the  hopes  of  the  Christians  re- 
rive. 

Renewal  of  hostilities;  the  Moslem 
•  hordes  approach  Acre,  but  soon 
retire: 

The  news  of  the  death  of  the 
queen-mother  of  France  haswjia 
the 

Departure  of  Louis  for  Europe. 

End  of  the  Seventh  Crusnde. 

Commercial  and  political  rivalry 
of  the  Venetian  States  the  cause 
of  troubles  in  Palestine. 

Disunion  between  the  several 
orders. 

Sanguinary  battles  between  the 
Templars  and  Knights  Hospital- 
lers ;  complete  and  merciless  de- 
struction of  the  former. 

Preparations  of  the  Templars  in 
Europe  for  inflicting  a  desperate 
vengeance  upon  the  Hospitallers. 

Approach  of  the  Mamelukes;  oc- 
cupation of  Damascus  and 
Aleppo. 

Mameluke  invasions,  under  Bon- 
docdar. 

Desperate  and  unequal  battles  be- 
tween the  now  united  orders  and 
the  Mamelukes. 

Loss  of  Azotus ;  Latins  put  to  the 
sword. 

Surrender  of  Saphoury;  Bondocdar 
(or  Bibars)  treacherously  violates 
his  treaty,  and  murders  all  hia 
prisoners. 

Loss  of  Caesarea,  Laodicea,  and 
Jjiffa. 

Fall  of  Antioch  before  Bibars  of 
Egypt :  massacre  of  40,000  (?) 
Christians;  100,000  are  sold  as 
slaves. 

Antioch  abandoned  to  desolation 
and  ruin. 

Acre  is  alone  in  the  hands  of  the 
Christians. 

Another  Crusade  is  proposed  and 
eagerly  adopted  in  Europe. 


480 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  1HE  CRUSADES. 


THE  EIGHTH  AND  LAST  CRUSADE, 

1270  Undertaken  by  Louis  IX.,  but  di- 

verted to  Africa.     (See  France.) 
Prince  Edward  of  England  sepa- 
rates   from   the   French    before 
Tunis,  and  proceeds  to  Sicily. 

1271  From  Sicily  he  departs  for  Pales- 

tine at  the  head  of  about  1000 
Englishmen. 

Edward  arrives  in  Palestine  in 
May. 

The  report  of  his  arrival  strikes 
Bondocdar  with  terror:  he  re- 
tires from  before  Acre. 

Edward,  with  only  9000  men, 
marches  against  the  infidels,  and 
routs  them  with  slaughter. 

Assault  on  Nazareth ;  capture  of 
the  city,  and  dreadful  slaughter 
of  the  Moslems. 

Edward's  army  fall  victims  to  dis- 
ease. 

Edward  is  himself  taken  01. 

Narrow  escape  from  assassination  ; 
Edward  kills  the  assassin,  (a 
Mussulman.) 

[None  of  the  writers  contemporary 
with  this  event  knew  any  thing 
of  that  beautiful  fiction — the 
creation  of  a  much  later  age — 
which  ascribes  the  recovery  of 
Edward  to  the  affectionate  de- 
votion of  his  consort,  Eleanor,  in 
sucking  the  venom  from  his 
wounds.] 

Truce  for  ten  years  offered  by  the 
Sultan  of  Egypt;  accepted  by 
Edward. 

1272  Edward  and  his  wife  Eleanor  re- 

turn hoire. 
End  of  tha  Eiyhtf:  Cruiade. 


A.  D. 

1274 


1276 

1280 
1289 

1290 
1391 


Pope  Gregory  X.  endeavours  to  ra 
vive  the  crusading  spirit  ia 
Europe. 

The  Latins  twice  plunder  the 
peaceable  Moslem  traders;  sa- 
tisfaction for  which  Keladun, 
Sultan  of  Egypt,  vainly  de- 
mands. 

Invasion  of  Palestine  by  the  Mame- 
lukes, who  renew  their  ravages 
every  year. 

Dismemberment  of  the  county  of 
Tripoli  from  the  Latin  kingdom, 
by  the  Mamelukes. 

Tyro  and  Sidon  destroyed  by  the 
Turks,  so  that  they  might  not 
afford  protection  any  longer  to 
the  Christians. 

Further  outrages  on  Mussulman 
merchants  by  the  inhabitants  of 
Acre. 

Sultan  Khatil  demands  reparation : 
denied. 

Khatil,  having  vowed  to  extermi- 
nate the  faithless  Franks,  leads 
an  army  of  200,000  men  against 
Acre. 

Fall  of  Acre,  the  last  Christian  pos- 
session in  Palestine. 

End  of  the  War  of  the  Cniaadat. 

["  The  cessation  of  the  Crusades 
was  not  produced  by  any  abate- 
ment of  the  love  of  arms,  or  of 
the  thirst  of  glory,  in  the  chi- 
valry of  Europe.  But  the  union 
with  these  martial  qualities  of 
that  fanatical  enthusiasm  which 
inspired  the  Christian  warrior* 
of  the  eleventh  century,  had 
been  slowly,  and  almost  U»o- 
roughly  dissolved."] 


TU  IV*, 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  041  022     5 


